Alternative Clean Energy Roundup: 3 August 2013

Solar and community relations: Sharing best practice essential to PV growth

Jul. 2, 2013 - With nearly 6GW of solar now having been approved by Chile’s national environmental agency, a huge number of local consultations and community impact studies will have been carried out.

At present, legal precedents and few clear guidelines have meant that communities play a powerful role in the environmental approval process and the PV community in Chile needs to work hard to provide value for local communities to ensure their projects can go ahead. read more>>>

Advocates tout clean energy

July 29, 2013 - Butler County residents gathered Saturday at Alameda Park to advocate for clean energy.

Marcellus Outreach Butler, a group dedicated to raising awareness of the dangers of hydraulic fracking for natural gas, hosted the fossil-free energy fair.

Patricia DeMarco, a professor at the University of Pittsburgh who has studied the environmental effects of energy, was the keynote speaker.

“We’re putting forward the argument that we have to stand for the future generations and the other living things on the Earth that cannot speak,” DeMarco said of the purpose of the fair. DeMarco focused on ways people can remove institutional barriers put in place by the government and companies that prevent sustainability. read more>>>

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Fossil Fuel Use Pushes Carbon Dioxide Emissions into Dangerous Territory

Jul. 23, 2013 - Increasing global emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), a heat-trapping gas, are pushing the world into dangerous territory, closing the window of time to avert the worst consequences of higher temperatures, such as melting ice and rising seas. Since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, carbon emissions from burning fossil fuels have grown exponentially. Despite wide agreement by governments on the need to limit emissions, the rate of increase ratcheted up from less than 1 percent each year in the 1990s to almost 3 percent annually in the first decade of this century. After a short dip in 2009 due to the global financial crisis, emissions from fossil fuels rebounded in 2010 and have since grown 2.6 percent each year, hitting an all-time high of 9.7 billion tons of carbon in 2012. read more>>>

Report: Energy efficiency can transcend political gridlock

July 30, 2013 - Energy efficiency is a practical, common sense idea where Democrats and Republicans can find common ground in the face of national political gridlock and inaction on energy reform, according to Powering Up America: The Revolution Began Yesterday, a new report from the Tremaine Foundation.

On average, U.S. homes and businesses reduce energy waste by 2 percent a year -- double what conventional economists predicted just a decade ago, but that could be changing as Americans "power up." read more>>>

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Building Green Increases Demand For Traditional Materials

7/30/2013 - According to a recent research report from Navigant Research, the worldwide market for green construction materials will grow from $116 billion in 2013 to greater than $254 billion in 2020. Europe is forecasted to be the largest of the regional markets, accounting for approximately 50%, by 2020.

In the 1980s, Germany started to subsidize more efficient buildings, building codes followed and things began to change. read more>>>

Goal Zero's New Katabatic 2 Solar Tent Will Keep Your Gadgets Charged in the Wilderness

07/31/13 - If there’s one place technophiles fear, it’s the great outdoors. But with these new charging gizmos by Eddie Bauer and Goal Zero, gadget geeks will be able to charge their devices even in the depths of a forest. First up is the solar powered Katabatic 2 tent; this 92-inch tall tent was designed for “roughing it” though all four seasons within an ample 36-square-feet space. However, beyond its generous quarters, the real star of the Katabatic 2 is the small triangular solar panel, called Goal Zero solar charger, which sits atop the tent, drawing in energy for powering devices.

While the 18-watt miniature solar power roof-system sits pretty on top of your tent you can connect it to a battery pack that you can then plug in to recharge all your iPhones, cameras, and GPS devices. read more>>>

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Suburban Sprawl to Power Cities of the Future

uly 30, 2013 — A city's suburbs could hold the solution to dwindling fuel supplies by producing enough energy to power residents' cars and even top up power resources, pioneering new research has found.

It is commonly assumed that compact cities, with built-up central business districts and densely-populated residential areas, are more energy efficient than the low-density suburban sprawl that surrounds them, which are dependent on oil for high levels of private transport use. read more>>>

New EPA chief: Green focus can help economy

July 31, 2013 - A cleaner, greener energy sector doesn’t have to mean thinning the workforce, President Obama’s newly confirmed Environmental Protection Agency chief said yesterday, returning to her native Boston and giving her first speech as the agency’s head at Harvard Law School.

Gina McCarthy — who was welcomed in Washington with a bill by House Republicans to cut her office’s budget by one-third — told the crowd in Cambridge she believes people have focused for too long on a “false choice” between saving the environment and strengthening the economy. read more>>>

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Advanced biofuels breaking records

July 31, 2013 - The U.S. biodiesel industry has reached a new production record for the first half of the year, according to figures from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Driven by strong federal policy aimed at diversifying the transportation fuels market, the biodiesel industry is on pace for its best year ever, according to the EPA.

Through the end of June, biodiesel refiners across the country have produced more than 636 million gallons, putting the industry on par to break the previous annual biodiesel production record of just under 1.1 billion gallons and significantly exceed this year's volume requirement under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). read more>>>

MOEA unveils green exhibition stall

07/31/2013 - A green exhibition stall featuring energy-saving equipment, green construction materials and a smart monitoring system was unveiled in Taipei City by the ROC Ministry of Economic Affairs July 30 as part of its Green Trade Promotion Project.

“The stand, which is energy-saving, practical and safe, shows that Taiwan’s building industry has become a global benchmark for green technology,” MOEA Deputy Minister Cho Shih-chao said. read more>>>