Sunday, March 3, 2013

Alternative Clean Energy Roundup: 3 March 2013

DeJa-Vu all over again! Like much of life things repeat themselves, and even a few times we learn the lessons not learned when they do. Remember going down this same road some forty years back, and similar reports about, but then we had an innovative and in most area's highly experienced workforce with a still expanding economy that was envied by many others on this planet. We allowed the brakes to be locked, by the special interests that didn't want to move forward but maintain their control and their wealth on the old fossil fuels used, on a growing industrial industry of alternative clean energy. We also started shipping, about the same time, those experienced trades to those that envied that now have that innovative work force, though at lower, but slowly growing, wage and benefit and virtually unregulated manufacturing and installation but are advancing the technologies in. We need, right here, more investments in R&D and developing and building the products and advancements in, along with finding other sources. And build another workforce, virtually from scratch, of innovative experianced labor who take pride in doing the best and better then anyone else, like we once had.

2 March 2013 - Solar manufacturing jobs increased by more than 14 percent last year. According to one U.S. solar manufacturer, this may just be the beginning. Jim Axelrod reports.

Improved Synchronicity: Preventive Care for the Power Grid
Mar. 1, 2013 — President Obama in this year's State of the Union address talked about the future of energy and mentioned "self-healing power grids" -- a grid that is able to keep itself stable during normal conditions and also to self-recover in the event of a disturbance caused, for example, by severe weather.

But as the national power-grid network becomes larger and more complex achieving reliability across the network is increasingly difficult. Now Northwestern University scientists have identified conditions and properties that power companies can consider using to keep power generators in the desired synchronized state and help make a self-healing power grid a reality. read more>>>

New arrivals from Greenlivingeveryday.com.

Boosting San Francisco’s Green Economy with Green Job Training
February 26, 2013 - Holding the ranking as the best city for green jobs by Forbes, San Francisco has a booming green economy. SF Environment’s green job training program, Environment Now, works to keep this momentum going by ensuring that San Francisco residents have the skills to access these green jobs.

Environment Now: The “Feet on the Street” of SF Environment
Since 2009, Environment Now has helped prepare workers for jobs in the green economy. The team is comprised of San Franciscans from diverse backgrounds with a broad range of experiences and skills, all sharing a passion for protecting the environment. read more>>>

New study: Green construction starting to pay off
March 01, 2013 - Green building is a nice thing. It might even be the right thing for developers. But is it profitable?

A new report says that it’s getting there.

United Technologies — the company that makes Carrier air conditioners and Otis elevators — teamed with McGraw Hill Construction to release their latest green building report, “World Green Building Trends.” The Feb. 28 report, which includes responses from more than 800 architects, engineers, building owners and contractors, says that green building is steadily becoming more profitable.

Here’s the key finding: 76 percent of respondents said that green building lowers the operating costs of buildings. That can benefit the bottom line of building owners concerned with how much energy their buildings consume. read more>>>

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Distributed Generation Microgrids Will Reach Nearly $13 Billion in Annual Market Value by 2018, Forecasts Pike Research
February 28, 2013 - Whether tied to the larger utility grid or islanded from it, microgrids are becoming an increasingly common way for campuses, communities, and other large power users to harness the benefits of distributed power generation. Many of these systems are deployed by end-use customers who are not getting the quality of energy services they desire from their host distribution utilities. According to a recent report from Pike Research, a part of Navigant’s Energy Practice, annual revenues from distributed generation microgrids will reach $12.7 billion in 2018.

“Microgrids represent a fundamental building block of the ultimate smart grid, designed to serve the needs of energy producers, consumers, and distribution utilities,” says senior research analyst Peter Asmus. “Perhaps most importantly, microgrids are an important accelerator for various kinds of distributed power generation, particularly from renewable sources.” read more>>>

KB Home and SunPower Celebrate 1,000th Solar Home and Nearly $1 Million in Estimated Annual Savings for Homeowners
March 01, 2013 - KB Home and SunPower Corp. came together today for a special event in Lancaster, Calif. In a little over a year and a half, KB Home has built more than 1,000 new homes powered by SunPower’s high efficiency solar power systems. More than 200 of these homes are in Lancaster, a city focused on advancing the use of solar power.

During an event at KB Home’s Dorado Skies community, KB Home and SunPower surprised new homeowners Joe and Brittaney Ellison with a free upgrade to their standard-size solar power system. Dorado Skies is one of KB Home’s newest communities in Southern California where SunPower solar systems are included as a standard feature of every home built. KB Home estimates that the standard 1.8-kilowatt (kW) system provides up to 40 percent in energy cost savings per year when compared to a typical resale home. The Ellisons’ home was built with a 3.2 kW system, which means they could enjoy up to 80 percent in energy cost savings per year, according to the homebuilder. read more>>>


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