Yesterday, Colorado’s state legislature finalized a bill to increase the state’s renewable energy standard to 30 percent by 2020.
Colorado was one of the first states to adopt a renewable energy standard at all, committing in 2004 to get 10 percent of their electricity from renewables by 2015 and increasing that to 20 percent by 2020 in 2006. This latest measure puts the state right behind California, who has the highest standard at 33 percent by 2020.
The bill also requires utilities to get 3 percent of their electricity from distributed sources like rooftop solar and other smaller wind and solar installations in order to give a boost to local renewable energy and construction companies. That requirement alone will be responsible for 1 GW of clean energy, save 6.8 billion gallons of water and reduce emissions by 30 million tons of CO2 a year.
via Climate Progress
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New research out of the University of York in Britain is unraveling some mysteries of the common wood-eating gribble that could provide the key to cheaply turning abundant wood and straw fiber into biofuel.
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Fresh off its official unveiling at the Chicago Auto Show a couple weeks ago, Azure Dynamics, Ford and AT&T have just announced that AT&T will be the first company to own some Ford Transit Connect Electric commercial fleet vans. With an order of just 2, it certainly is a small start, but the list will surely grow from here.
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Jamais CascioA piece in the latest issue of Science shows that there’s a considerable amount of methane (CH4) coming from the East Siberian Arctic Shelf, where…
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KB Home, one of the largest homebuilders in the U.S., has announced that they will be providing the option to homebuyers to pre-wire their new construction homes so that they are ready for the high voltage, high amperage electrical lines required to charge electric cars quickly and properly.
The company views this new option as an extension of their already existing “My Home. My Earth.” campaign to make their homes more energy efficient and load them with features and equipment that both save money and have a lowered environmental impact.
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“It’s not too late; we can minimize the alteration, or we can just plow on as usual … and if we plow on as usual … it could be very, very bad.” So says Nobel Prizewinner for Physics, Steven Chu, who is now Energy Secretary of the Obama administration Department of Energy – at Stanford University this week.
“Speaking to the choir” (peer reviewed scientists and the educated already understand the problem) but really addressing the Senate Republicans who need to pass climate legislation, Chu stressed the danger and risks of inaction.
Much of the outcome will depend on the Earth’s response to an anticipated temperature increase of five or six degrees centigrade, an effect that won’t take hold for another 100 to 150 years, he said.
That’s when the oceans, a vast storage sink for carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere, are expected to reach capacity and begin expelling gases back into the air.
There are great uncertainties as to the outcome awaiting us if we continue business as usual by relying on a fossil-fuel-guzzling energy infrastructure to meet everyday needs, said Chu.
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One of the biggest barriers to the adoption of electric cars, plug-in hybrids and extended range electric vehicles is cost. The biggest part of that added cost is the battery. In the past, estimates of roughly $1000 per kWh of battery capacity have been thrown around as a way to gauge how much of a premium consumers can expect to pay. Given that it takes roughly 25 kWh to go 100 miles, you can see how this would quickly add up.
Recently, however, the cost of lithium-ion batteries has been dropping more steeply than expected; indicating that the potential in the market to reduce the premium of owning a battery-powered car has been greatly underestimated.
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In a recent interview with Business Week, Renault-Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn was cited as saying that Nissan has collected 56,000 orders for the LEAF already. What this actually means, I’m not sure… especially considering that just last month Nissan said they had more than 50,000 people signed up on their Nissan LEAF interest list (which requires no deposit) and that actual pre-orders requiring a small refundable deposit of $100 will begin in April.
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Given the state of the economy you’d think they’d be pinching every penny but it appears that the State of Arizona has money to burn – perhaps literally. Last week the House voted in favor of a bill that would use old tires to fill abandoned mines. The bill’s supporters cite the growing problem of used tire dumps, but apparently they don’t keep up with the latest business news. Magnum D’Or and InfoSpi are just two of the rapidly growing number of companies that see the potential for recycling those tire dumps into real money – and creating more green jobs to boot.
Squandering an opportunity to make money is bad enough, but the Arizona bill does something much worse. Tires burn, right? Doesn’t everybody know that? Tire fires are hard enough to put out when they’re in open dumps. The idea of stuffing millions of tires into abandoned mines sounds a little less than common sensical… that is, if you know anything about underground mine fires…
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Ethan Zuckerman Secretary Clinton’s recent speech on Internet Freedom has signaled a strong interest from the US State Department in promoting the use of the internet…
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“Range anxiety” — the worry that your EV will run out juice before you get to where your going — is a term that has been bandied about a lot recently… almost annoyingly so. From a common sense standpoint, it seems only logical that range anxiety is a real phenomenon. But since we we have so few EVs on the roads right now, the fact of the matter is that range anxiety is, at this point, a made up concept based on what we can logically expect.
And it’s this expectation that is spurring a huge amount of both private and public investment in nationwide charging networks for EVs — the assumption being that the only way EVs will ever become mass-accepted is to eliminate range anxiety.
But will those public charging stations that we’re dumping money into go unused because we have an expectation for a phenomenon that turns out to not really be an issue?
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Warren County Kentucky is building the first net-zero energy school in the country. Richardsville Elementary School will operate free of the grid by generating its own renewable energy, incorporating smart architectural features and a major emphasis on efficiency.
The list of features for this school is mind-boggling. The school will have thin-film PV roof arrays, solar water heating, geothermal HVAC, insulated concrete form walls, a rainwater collection system and energy-efficient lighting. The building is designed to take full advantage of natural light and wind for cooling. The plot of land includes a reclaimed brownfield, preserved woodland, a protected stream and bioswales.
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At the Wall Street Journal’s recent ECO:nomics conference, the “only CEO-level event focused on the relationship between the environment and the bottom line,” the CEOs of some major energy companies expressed their impatience at the US’ slow and unclear movement to take action on climate change and clean energy.
Royal Dutch Shell chief executive Peter Voser said that the industry needs “certainty on the carbon price, certainty on legislation.” Shell is a member of the US Climate Action Partnership.
American Electric Power chairman Michael Morris, regarding climate change and clean energy legislation, said, “We need this done. America needs to lead the world [in clean technologies].”
And FPL Group chief executive Lew Hay reiterated, “We need some certainty about the economics.”
These top CEOs are getting impatient, and there is no question why. The bottom line is, if the US is going to lead the global economy (or even be a significant player in it), it needs to get cracking on clean energy legislation.
In a similar manner, the question the Center for American Progress (CAP) recently decided to pose is this: “Is the US already out of the clean energy race?”. They have just released a report on this topic as well.
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A new report from technology research corporation iSuppli warns that we’re facing a global LED shortage in 2010. Hooray!
Why am I cheering? Because the reason for this shortage is a huge surge in demand for the energy-efficient lighting in the electronics industry. Yes, it’s bad that the supply is low, but it’s great news that the use of more efficient lighting is becoming more mainstream.
The report says that demand for LEDs is expected to rise by double-digit percentages for at least the next three years. In 2009, 63 billion units were consumed out of the 75 billion unit capacity worldwide. The worst-case scenario is a rise in prices for mid-range and high-end computers and HDTVs because of their larger displays.
The solution is simple enough though: increase production. The two largest suppliers have gotten the hint — Aixtron and Veeco Instruments are doubling their production by the end of this year.
via PC Mag
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WorldChanging TeamGreetings Worldchangers! By becoming a fan of Worldchanging on Facebook or by following (and retweeting) us on Twitter, you are helping to spread the word…
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