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The Sustainable Building Envelope Centre (SBEC) is a £6 million research centre cofounded by Tata Steel, the Low Carbon Research Institute and Welsh Government to accelerate the development of low carbon solutions for the built environment. The SBEC building was fitted with Colorcoat Renew SC® to provide a highly efficient source of renewable energy at a low cost. With up to 75% efficiency converting solar radiation to usable heat energy, the system installed at SBEC has the potential to produce up to 39MWh per year. Click headline to read more and view pictures of the SBEC--
It is one thing to target energy savings – but quite another to invest capital in encouraging others to do likewise. Property owner and manager British Land made just such a commitment in 2010. The real estate investment trust set a three-year deadline to reduce energy use by at least 20% per square meter in 11 of its managed commercial properties. To achieve the target, it partnered with more than 40 occupiers to install an advanced metering system in nine office buildings and two shopping centres. Jointly funded by British Land, occupier service charges and third party contributions, the £1m investment should be recouped after three years thanks to guaranteed cost savings. But energy savings look set to be greater than anticipated. An award-winning trial at British Land's head office reduced energy use by 38% in landlord-controlled areas and by a total of 29% over the first two years.
Quite a few greentech companies closed sizable funding rounds this week, and Battery Ventures is involved in three of them. Is cleantech support holding on in the venture world? Here’s what we’ve seen from Battery and others: Click headline to read about the six featured companies--
The global energy storage market is currently being driven by government investments, renewable energy policies, smart grid deployments, private capital, successful demonstration projects, and government backed research and development aimed at reducing the costs of energy storage technologies. In fact, progressive utilities across the globe are exploring the use of energy storage technologies to provide load shifting, reserve capacity, frequency regulation, renewable energy integration, substation back-up and storage, spinning reserves, and community energy storage solutions. Click headline to read more--
The world's largest wind turbine maker aims to put wind on a par with oil and gas, by publicly rating the renewable energy content of consumer products. In a move to encourage corporations and consumers to demand more use of wind energy in manufacturing and supply, Danish company Vestas Wind Systems created three transparency tools in 2011. Supported by The UN Global Compact, the World Wildlife Fund, Bloomberg, PWC and others, the tools are designed to have a "pull effect". The hope is they will encourage companies to buy more renewable energy and provide consumers with the right information to make sustainable choices. The Corporate Renewable Energy Index (CREX) is described as the first platform to allow companies to disclose their energy consumption. Through it, Vestas claims to have established the "most comprehensive snapshot" of corporate renewable use. Click headline to read more and access hot links--
In a huge win for startup Nest, which makes a connected learning thermostat, Apple has now started selling the Nest thermostat through its online store (hat tip The Verge). If you recall, Nest founder Tony Fadell was the former chief architect at Apple where he led the development of the iPod and the first three versions of the iPhone. He left Apple three years ago to start Nest. Not surprisingly Apple and Nest share a similar design sensibility, and the Nest thermostat can also be controlled via an iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch or Mac. When Nest first launched its thermostat, I called it “a thermostat Steve Jobs would love.” Click headline to read more--
As last year's Fukushima nuclear disaster began to unfold, German Chancellor Angela Merkel responded to the catastrophe by announcing nothing short of an energy revolution in Germany. By 2022, the chancellor said, the country would decommission all of its nuclear power plants, and by 2050, 80 percent of all energy in the country should come from renewable sources. It was a plan that heralded an era of offshore wind farms, solar panels and wind turbines across large parts of the country and pumped-storage hydroelectric plants that would ensure a constant flow of electricity even when the wind isn't blowing and the sun isn't shining. One year after the bold announcement, precious little has happened -- save for painful price hikes that have hit consumers' pocketbooks and companies' bottom lines. Many offshore wind farms aren't connected to the grid yet, and the massive power masts needed to transport the energy haven't been built. To add to the problems, Merkel last week sacked her environment minister, Norbert Röttgen, the very man in charge of implementing the highly ambitious clean energy plans. It appears she was more displeased with his lack of progress on the difficult energy project than his embarrassing loss in a recent state election. Click headline to read more--
Despite the work the U.S. has done the past decade to make information technology ubiquitous, a digital divide persists between America and some of the fast-advancing European countries. Interestingly, while the country’s large land area is still one of the main factors impeding the U.S. government’s ability to successfully leverage its IT capabilities to a maximum, the biggest reason for the country’s underperformance has been its “less than satisfactory” political and regulatory environment, according to The Global Information Technology Report 2012 [PDF]. That opinion was echoed by Beñat Bilbao-Osorio, associate director and senior economist at the World Economic Forum and one of the report’s authors. Although the U.S. is excelling on many technology fronts from a global perspective, Bilbao-Osorio said the American government still hasn’t been able to make the best use of IT and technology infrastructure. Click headline to read more and access hot link to the report--
It’s an easy and cheap way to support renewable energy in Minnesota! Buying green power doesn’t mean that your home is individually powered by wind power, but it does mean that your utility will purchase that much more energy from a turbine rather than a coal burning plant. You can show your utility that you think renewable energy is an important resource and help reduce your carbon footprint. Click headline to read more--
When thinking about cleantech, I tend to think in terms of resources and supply constraints, meaning that when we switch from a fossil fuel like coal to a renewable resource like wind, I consider what natural resources we’re newly dependent on (unfortunately it’s more than just wind). The move to renewable energy has a lot of great advantages—reduced particulate matter from not burning hydrocarbons, more stable energy prices, energy security, and yes, slowing the accumulation of greenhouse gases driving climate change. But this week I’d like to take a look at five natural resources that will significantly impact the future development of renewable energy. Click headline to read more--
Sustainability is now firmly on the agenda in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA); with the development of Masdar at the hub of a low carbon future, we are continually seeing a shift away from fossil fuels towards a variety of clean energy and power solutions. Some of the most surprising movements are happening in oil-rich countries such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Here, I offer a look at the rise in alternative energy projects in the Middle East and the large numbers of renewable energy job opportunities being created. Currently, the MENA region meets 98 percent of its energy requirements through oil and gas, having benefited from abundant hydrocarbon resources and low costs in the region. However, rising oil prices combined with a greater understanding by the Middle East of the impacts of global warming and growing energy demands, brought about by huge infrastructure development, have resulted in depleting reserves and a clear need to diversify. Fortunately, the geography and climate conditions of the MENA region are highly conducive to the development of renewable energy sources, most notably solar and wind. Clik headline to read more--
Proponents of net metering report sending 60,000 emails to the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) urging it to increase the amount of solar photovoltaic (PV) generation which can participate in the state's policy, by challenging current utility practice in calculating the state net metering cap. The CPUC has indicated in a preliminary ruling that utilities are using an overly restrictive approach to calculating this cap, and on May 24th, 2012 the agency will vote on this proposal. The Vote Solar Initiative warns that under current policy, the cap could be reached as early as mid-2013. "When we crafted California’s original net metering law, the goal was maximize the amount of clean distributed energy on the grid," said former Assemblyman Fred Keeley, author of California’s net metering law. "By proposing this methodology, the CPUC is complying with the original legislative intent and helping California lead the way toward a clean energy economy." Click headline to read more--
IntelliGen Power, a leader in distributed power projects, is announcing today their availability to provide free assistance to businesses and municipalities seeking funding through the New Jersey Clean Energy Solutions Large Scale CHP (LSCHP) Program. “This program is a great opportunity for businesses to get free money to pay for their CHP systems,” said David Lesser, President of IntelliGen Power. “The utility rates in New Jersey already make cogeneration a very appealing solution for energy users looking to save money, and support from this program drives down the cost even more. Even without this funding, cogeneration projects in New Jersey typically pay for themselves in less than 5 years.” Click headline to read more--
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The Church of England is embracing zero-carbon living with the construction of two new eco vicarages in the Diocese of Worcester. The Diocese wanted new vicarages that were cheaper to run and that sent a clear environmental message. It selected Speller Metcalfe to build them according to Passivhaus principles. The company experimented with an extension to an arch-deacon's house to find the most cost-effective methods, then built two five-bedroom vicarages. Speller Metcalfe's design creates optimum conditions for minimising energy loss and increasing solar gain. South-facing solar panels generate electricity, bedrooms and living rooms face south to benefit from sunshine. The annual energy demand will be cut from 26,000Whr in the old vicarages to 8,000Whr in the new ones. The vicarages have built in bird, bat and lacewing boxes on garden trees, hedgehog homes and one even has a new pond. Click headline to read more--
Overhauling Britain's housing to conserve energy could cost more than the money it saves. A social landlord's unique project reveals multiple practical problems and a disinterested public. With 57,000 homes, Affinity Sutton is among the UK's largest housing associations. It launched the £1.2m FutureFit in 102 typical homes to establish the challenges and costs of large-scale home energy improvements and find a model for social housing. The project is providing a unique insight into how to reduce carbon emissions in domestic housing and meet the government's Green Deal challenge promoting energy efficiency from October 2012. FutureFit took three budgets: £6,500, £10,000 and £25,000 and applied them to 22 properties representing 75% of English housing. It revealed a funding gap of £3,000 per property between the cost of works and the value of energy savings. Only 4.8% of householders responded to the offer of free works and 23% dropped out after signing up. There were problems with wall and floor insulation, heat recovery ventilation, weather compensators and huge variation in airtightness. Click headline to read more--
India has become a hot bed of solar activity, thanks to the country’s booming economy, the problems with the domestic coal industry, and the country’s strong solar incentives. And while many of the solar projects are being connected to the grid to generate power for cities, some companies are looking to build businesses off of solar for off-grid rural India — including solar developer SunEdison. This week SunEdison, part of Missouri-based MEMC Electronic Materials, announced a project to bring solar systems to rural Indian villages called “Eradication of Darkness.” The project will focus on building a business model for designing, installing and managing solar projects for 29 villages in India’s Guna District. The 29 projects will be funded through a combo of government grants and private funds from other investors and corporations, says SunEdison. Click headline to read more--
Global demand for water is growing at an astonishing rate – possibly 40% higher than current demand – in the next 20 years. That means utilities will need to find the best ways to manage the finite resource they possibly can. That need translates into a huge jump in smart water meter deployments, according to a report from Pike Research. The report, Smart Water Meters, says we can expect to see a global base of smart water meters using AMI technologies to hit almost 30 million by 2017, an astonishing increase over the 10.3 million in use in 2011. By the end of the forecast period, annual shipments are expected to be 3.3 million, with an annual market value of $476 million. Smart water meters will be a primary tool or utilities that need to manage water as efficiently as possible, keep costs down and keep it affordable for consumers. Click headline to read more and access hot link to the report--
Fukushima s effect on the energy industry has been felt from Taiwan to Germany but, of course, nowhere as much as in Japan. The radioactive element of the earthquake and tsunami-induced disaster of March 2011, when three separate nuclear reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi plant suffered full meltdown, changed decades-old assumptions about how an energy-hungry, resource-poor industrial giant gets its power. The wider catastrophe, in which 19,000 died or went missing, meant total shutdown of an advanced fleet of 56 nuclear power stations, concluding on May 5 with the Tomari 3 plant in Hokkaido. More drastically still the disgrace of Fukushima plant operator TEPCO prised open big energy s grip on political-industrial Japan, a fact of life since the 1960s. For Japan s anti-nuclear campaigners Fukushima came as a blessing in (heavy) disguise. In a different way, the same might also be said for Scotland. That was certainly the feeling at last week s renewable-dominated All-Energy conference in Aberdeen, when a session on the Japanese opportunity was added to the programme. Scotland s international profile in green technologies, assiduously promoted by the current Scottish Government, suggests new trading possibilities with our oldest friends in the Far East. In the aftermath of Fukushima, as Japan races to adopt renewable technologies, and reaches out to countries which have by choice, not necessity, prioritised green power. Scotland is at the leading edge. In Aberdeen last week, Richard Oppenheim, head of energy policy at the British Embassy in Tokyo, was kept pretty busy responding to unprecedented interest from Scottish and UK companies alert to the new opportunities. Click headline to read more--
Remember the Airborne Wind Turbine covered by Gizmag towards the end of March? The creator of the prototype, Altaeros Energies, has been in touch to show us a video of the prototype in operation and we can confirm that a) it flies and b) the turbine goes round. Though we wouldn't typically post an update with relatively scant new information, the combination of this product's uniqueness and the interest the original story garnered among Gizmag readers means we thought this was worth letting you know about. Also, it's nice to have a video without unnecessarily distracting and incongruous music suddenly blasting out of your cans, but perhaps that's just me. Judge for yourself... Click headline to watch the YouTube video--
The development of solar photovoltaic (PV) capacities and the early summer weather brought Germany a new world record for solar power production at noon on May 25th, 2012. Under a cloudless sky on Friday, May 25th, 2012 German photovoltaic arrays for the first time fed more than 20,000 megawatts (MW) of electricity into the grid, as reported by the International Economic Platform for Renewable Energies (IWR) in Münster, Germany. Solar power production reached 22,000 MW at noon, IWR emphasizes. This corresponds to the performance of more than 20 nuclear power plants. "There is currently no other country on earth, which is able to produce solar electric power with a capacity of 20,000 MW," said IWR Director Dr. Norbert Allnoch. Click headline to read more--
Last summer I wrote about a study of the greenhouse gas impact of large hydropower dams, how it's lower than often assumed but still varies widely based on where the dams are built. Now there's some more research on how when hydropower dams are built in the tropics, the emissions are much, much higher than their counterparts in temperate regions—so much so that they really can't be considered a clean energy source, a solution to climate change. Mongabay reports on a study in Nature Climate Change, which has determined that "various mathematical errors have resulted in Brazil's electrical authorities estimating the magnitude of emissions from reservoir surfaces at a level of only one-fourth what it should be. [...] The myth can no longer be sustained that tropical dams produce clean energy." Click headline to read more--
A Scottish smart grid strategy has been announced to develop technologies which match electricity supply with demand. The blueprint announced by First Minister Alex Salmond at a conference in Aberdeen is accompanied by a target to create 12,000 new jobs by 2020. It is claimed that Scotland already has world-class research in smart grids and related technologies. The strategy was developed by a working group of academics and individuals from industry and academics. Smart grids help match energy demand to changeable supply, from wind for example. On behalf of the group, Prof Jim McDonald, the principal of the University of Strathclyde, said: "The Smart Grid Sector Strategy represents an important step forward in capturing Scotland's industry opportunities in one of the largest power engineering infrastructure developments in the 21st Century. Click headline to read more--
On June 6 we will conduct an information session in Traverse City, MI for residential electric customers interested in learning about customer-installed solar energy systems. This free session will be held at the Aero Park campus of Northwestern Michigan College from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. and is open to the public. Speakers during the session will provide information on how customers can install their own solar energy systems as part of Consumers Energy’s Experimental Advanced Renewable Program (EARP). Reservations for this session and information about the program are available at www.consumersenergy.com/EARP. Click headline to read more and access hot links
Before Facebook's recent initial public offering, the media obsessed over superlatives. It was the largest-ever IPO for a U.S. technology company. It was the third-largest in U.S. history. And now the obsession is over the company's lackluster revenue prospects and possible misconduct by investment bankers involved in the offering. Missing here is any awareness of the enormous quantities of electricity Facebook and other data-intensive technology companies require. Those requirements expose a fundamental mismatch between the high-power-density world of Big Data and the low-density electricity production inherent in most renewable energy projects. Click headline to read more--
On May 18, Vermont’s Governor Shumlin signed into law the 2012 Energy Bill, which contains a groundbreaking acknowledgement of the locational benefits of distributed generation and more than doubles the amount of clean local energy that will be brought online through the state’s CLEAN Program. The new law expands Vermont’s statewide CLEAN Program, known locally as the Standard Offer program, from 50 megawatts (MW) to 127.5 MW. Notably, the capacity of any distributed generation facility that provides “sufficient benefits to the operation and management of the electric grid” as a result of its location or other characteristics will not count towards the overall program cap of 127.5 MW. Therefore, no limit exists on the amount of clean local energy that can come online from facilities providing sufficient locational benefits. The recognition of locational benefits by Vermont legislators is a major step towards broader awareness of the true value of distributed generation. Clean local energy projects alleviate transmission and distribution (T&D) constraints, while also avoiding the inefficient and expensive long-distance transmission of energy. Click headline to read more--
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