Alternative Clean Energy Roundup: 2 October 2013

"Cracking the code" on residential solar

September 27, 2013 - A new report issued by the Clean Energy Finance and Investment Authority (CEFIA) and SmartPower, a non-profit that engages communities in energy efficiency and clean energy to promote behavior change, reveals a way to reduce the soft costs that have traditionally been an obstacle to residential solar power. The report calls the model "proven" for dramatically reducing the cost barrier that has stood in the way of wide-scale adoption of residential solar power in the United States.

The cost of the hardware required for residential solar power has declined significantly in recent years, but a way to reign in solar soft costs has remained elusive. read more>>>

Indonesia Backs Low Cost Green Car Production

September 25, 2013 - The government of Indonesia is offering incentives to support the production of more low cost green cars after Toyota declared its commitment to supply the country with environmentally-friendly vehicles earlier this month.

Indonesia’s government is offering these incentives to ensure the country becomes the production hub for them within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, ASEAN.

“The Ministry of Finance will ensure that the low cost green cars regulation is put in place,” Anshari Bukhari, secretary general of the Ministry of Industry told the Antara News Agency on Tuesday. He said the ministry hopes to implement the policy by the end of this year. read more>>>

Ghana: It Is Time to Develop Green Economies - Participants Tell African Govts

26 September 2013 - Faced with dwindling foreign direct investments (FDIs), low commodity prices and the impact of the geopolitics, including the Middle East and North Africa upheavals on the African continent, participants at the ongoing General Assembly of the African Network of Biosphere Reserves (AFRIMAB) have called on the African governments to develop green economies.

The green economies are concerned with improved human well-being and social equity, while significantly reducing environmental risks and ecological scarcities. Green economy is an economy or economic development model based on sustainable development and knowledge of ecological economics. read more>>>

Pioneering commercial solar microgrid completed, batteries included

30 September 2013 - Microgrids, by all accounts I’ve seen, are projected to increase considerably in the coming years. There are several good reasons for that, including more reliable electricity, more secure electricity, and assistance in integrating renewable energy into the grid.

One of the first commercial-scale microgrids in the US has just been completed, showing others how it could (and should) be done. In a press release published earlier this week, Standard Solar and Solar Grid storage wrote: “Standard Solar, a leader in the full-service development, construction, integration, financing and installation of solar electric systems, in collaboration with Solar Grid Storage, today announced that construction is complete on the solar microgrid project at Maryland-developer Konterra’s headquarters. The project, announced earlier this year, is a grid-interactive energy storage system co-located with a new 1,368 panel photovoltaic (PV) array.” read more>>>

Spain to assist Kazakhstan in developing green economy

30.09.2013 - Spain is ready to assist Kazakhstan to develop its green economy, Tengrinews reports, citing Spanish PM Mariano Rajoy.

“Kazakhstan strives for sustainable development and I am sure environment issues are set to play a greater role in cooperation of the two nations. Spanish companies possess advanced green technology. They have actively applied the technology in Spain and are widely exported worldwide, including to Kazakhstan. Cooperation with Kazakhstan has been more than satisfying, notably in urban waste recycling”, Mr. Rajoy said when speaking at an international conference on environment issues in Astana. read more>>>

Remote microgrids proliferating globally

September 30, 2013 - Global remote microgrids are multiplying due to a number of factors, including high costs for existing energy services in many parts of the world and declining costs for solar photovoltaics and other renewable distributed energy generation technologies. In fact, Navigant Research reports that worldwide revenue from remote microgrids will grow from $3.1 billion in 2013 to more than $8.4 billion in 2020.

Navigant Research defines the fundamental concept of a microgrid as "an integrated energy system network consisting of distributed energy resources (DER) and multiple electrical loads and/or meters operating as a single, autonomous grid either in parallel to or 'islanded' from the existing utility power grid." read more>>>

Infographic: The Technology Behind Elon Musk's 700 MPH Hyperloop Train

09/30/13 - Elon Musk’s Hyperloop is one of the most talked about transportation developments of 2013 – and now that two top engineers have signed up to work on the project, it looks like it could actually see the light of day. Webpage FX recently launched a new infographic that details the Hyperloop’s various features and compares the futuristic train to California’s proposed high speed rail. Check out the full infographic after the break! read more>>>

UK Breaks Renewable Energy Generation Record for Second Time This Year

09/30/13 - A new government report by the UK’s Department of Energy And Climate Change shows that the country has reached a record high in the amount of energy it derives from renewable sources. In the second quarter of 2013, a full 15.5% of the country’s electricity came from renewables – a jump of 5.8% compared to the same period last year.

Near half of the UK’s energy came from wind farms, at 48%. Onshore wind farms increased their energy output by 70% compared to last year, and offshore wind increased by 51%. Other renewable sources examined in the report include solar power, hydroelectric power, and energy from biological sources like landfills, food waste, and animal biomass. This is the second time this year that the UK has broken a record for the amount of renewable energy generated. read more>>>

‘Green economy’ key to advancing Barbados’s sustainable development agenda

30 September 2013 – A policy of sustainable development is a matter of survival for Barbados, its Minister today told the United Nations General Assembly, highlighting also debt sustainability and efforts to support the international financial service sector.

In her statement, the Minster of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Maxine Pamela Ometa McClean, noted that Barbados has special needs as a small island developing State (SIDS), and that its development is inextricably linked to ocean resources.

She quoted Prime Minister Freundel Stuart who had said that “the green economy debate recognizes our structural vulnerabilities, offers a model to assist us in further realising our sustainable development aspirations and creates the institutional platform that would enable us to participate in innovative partnerships in the fight to save our planet, against mounting unsustainable consumption and production patterns.” read more>>>

Youths and the Burgeoning Green Economy

September 30, 2013 - Pazhae Horace has a summer job with California Youth Energy Services, or CYES. It’s a program that hires youth aged 15-22 to do free “green house calls” in their communities. They go into people’s homes to evaluate energy and water efficiency, and then help install things like water-saving shower heads, or compact fluorescent light bulbs. Horace is 22, and this is her third summer working for the CYES site in Berkeley and Emeryville. She says that, at first, she was worried about talking to strangers, but now she really likes meeting new people, and helping them become more green.

Jodi Pincus is executive director of Rising Sun Energy Services, the nonprofit that runs the CYES summer program, along with other green job training for youth and adults. She says CYES gives youth more than just employment. “You know, they're not getting a job at Starbucks," she says, "where they could learn equally valuable soft skills or professionalism. But it's not as meaningful in the sense of their contribution to the environment or to their community.” read more>>>