Alternative Clean Energy Roundup: 20 September 2014

UN chief will join massive People’s Climate March to seek solutions to global warming

Organizers expect more than 100,000 people will parade through Midtown streets for the protest on Sunday. In a surprise move, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon suggested he’d join the protestors. The march precedes a UN climate change summit of 120 world leaders on Tuesday.

September 16, 2014 - Nearly two years after Hurricane Sandy’s devastation made the age of extreme weather impossible for New Yorkers to ignore, our city is about to host the largest mass protest around global warming in history.

Organizers predict more than 100,000 people will parade down Midtown streets Sunday for the People’s Climate March. It’s scheduled just before United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon convenes a climate change summit of 120 world leaders Tuesday as part of the UN General Assembly meeting. read more>>>

The Big 340: Trickle Of Renewable Energy Investors Turns Into Flood

September 18th, 2014 - Back in January we introduced you to the Ceres “Clean Trillion” renewable energy investor campaign, but you ain’t heard nothing yet. That Niagra-scale roar coming out of midtown Manhattan this morning is the sound of 340 renewable energy investors pulling their collective weight together in a press conference to fight for renewable energy. These are no small potatoes, either. These are global institutional investors with a pile of assets to the tune of $24 trillion.

What these renewable energy investors are looking for is a playing field tilted in favor of sustainability, which according to their manifest boils down to no more subsidies for fossil fuels as well as the introduction of global carbon pricing. That’s familiar turf, so what’s really new here is the massive financial interests that have rallied to the renewable energy cause. read more>>>

Obama pushes energy efficiency, rural solar power

09/18/14 - The Obama administration unveiled a slew of actions Thursday aimed at improving energy efficiency and increasing the use of solar power in homes and businesses, including $68 million in spending.

The White House said the actions would reduce carbon dioxide emissions by nearly 300 million metric tons by 2030, the equivalent of 60 million cars’ emissions in a year. They will also save $10 billion in energy costs.

The actions, together with commitments from states, communities, companies and others, are part of President Obama’s second-term push to reduce carbon emissions in an effort to mitigate climate change. read more>>>

Renewable Energy in California Deserts: New Plan to Guide Smart and Sustainable Development

September 17, 2014 - A draft of the long-awaited Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan (DRECP) will be released any day now. The DRECP is intended to provide a landscape-level assessment of the most appropriate and inappropriate places to build large-scale renewable energy projects in the California portions of the Mojave and Colorado deserts to minimize impacts on wildlife habitats and desert ecosystems. By identifying the most suitable locations for renewable energy projects, the DRECP will bring more efficiency and certainty to the project permitting process and help us meet our clean energy goals.

Unprecedented collaboration read more>>>

New Hydrogen Production Method Could Help Store Renewable Energy

09/17/2014 - Scientists at Scotland's University of Glasgow say they've found a new way to produce hydrogen from clean, renewable energy sources.

In a paper published in September in the journal Science, the researchers explain how they've created a system that can produce hydrogen 30 times quicker than ever before, and using power from green energy like wind and solar.

Hydrogen is a clean fuel, producing only water when consumed. It has minimal environmental impacts if used in fuel cells or combusted to produce electricity, and companies are already making hydrogen-powered cars that don't produce harmful emissions. read more>>>

The coming era of unlimited — and free — clean energy

September 19 2014 - In the 1980s, leading consultants were skeptical about cellular phones. McKinsey & Company noted that the handsets were heavy, batteries didn’t last long, coverage was patchy, and the cost per minute was exorbitant. It predicted that in 20 years the total market size would be about 900,000 units, and advised AT&T to pull out. McKinsey was wrong, of course. There were more than 100 million cellular phones in use 2000; there are billions now. Costs have fallen so far that even the poor — all over world — can afford a cellular phone.

The experts are saying the same about solar energy now. They note that after decades of development, solar power hardly supplies 1 percent of the world’s energy needs. They say that solar is inefficient, too expensive to install, and unreliable, and will fail without government subsidies. They too are wrong. Solar will be as ubiquitous as cellular phones are. read more>>>

When it comes to renewable energy, China is trumping the U.S.

Sept. 18, 2014 - This month’s report on renewable energy markets from the International Energy Agency indicates that by 2020, China will account for almost 40 percent of the growth in renewable energy capacity. The United States, meanwhile, lags behind, obsessed with its natural gas boom and riveted by remaining oil reserves on its federally protected lands.

As a result, the U.S. is missing an incredible economic opportunity. Last year alone, new renewable power capacity expanded at its fastest pace yet, and global electricity generation from renewables was roughly on par with that from natural gas. In energy terms, that means annual global renewable power generation rose by 5 percent to over 5,000 terawatt hours – more than enough to power the entire United States.

China has seen the writing on the wall and is heavily investing in its renewable energy sector, especially since renewable electricity now accounts for more than 20 percent of global generation. Chinese companies control the largest share of the $100 billion solar photovoltaic industry. And who can blame them? China is responding to international demand while tackling untenable pollution levels at home. read more>>>

30,000+ Solar Water Heaters Installed in eThekwini (Durban), South Africa

2014-08-28 - South Africa’s National Solar Water Heating Strategy and Implementation Plan will guide the installation of 1 million solar water heaters across South Africa to help meet goals related to clean energy, energy access and energy security. As part of this effort, the implementation program for the Municipality of eThekwini (Greater Durban) – a program which has made considerable use of RETScreen – has seen the installation of more than 30,000 solar water heaters thus far.

A comprehensive study of renewable energy options for the city was prepared by the firm Marbek Resource Consultants in 2007. read more>>>

RETScreen Enables Brazilian Clean Energy Market

2014-07-29 - With over 7,000 users in Brazil, the RETScreen Clean Energy Management Software has helped advance the country’s position as a global clean energy leader. RETScreen is recognized and promoted by organizations such as Electrobras, Latin America’s largest power utility, as well as the Brazilian National Department of Solar Heating (DASOL). SENAI (Brazil’s Industrial Apprenticeship Service which reaches over 2 million students annually) uses RETScreen extensively in its educational programs, and numerous other Brazilian universities use RETScreen for teaching and research. Enhancing the advantages that RETScreen provides to accelerate Brazilian clean energy is the fact that the software and some of the associated training material is available in the Portuguese language.

RETScreen’s industrial facility applications have proven especially valuable to GrupoSAGE, a Brazilian energy consulting company. read more>>>

ABB to enable integration of renewables in Alaskan island microgrid

2014 September 13 - ABB, the leading power and automation group, will install its PowerStore, an integrated commercial flywheel technology to integrate with a battery system on Kodiak Island in Alaska to enable the integration of more renewable energy from an expanded wind farm to its microgrid and also to address stability challenges that will arise from a crane upgrade being undertaken to enhance its port operations.The project is being undertaken on behalf of Kodiak Electric Association (KEA), an electric cooperative owned by residents of the Island, the company said in its press release.

Kodiak Island, off Alaska’s south coast, is the second largest island in the United States. Its population of 15,000 people live in just seven communities, the largest in the port town of Kodiak. KEA operates a microgrid that generates virtually all of its 28 megawatts (MW) of electricity capacity from hydropower and wind. read more>>>

The Clean Energy Economy: 2.7 Million Green Jobs, 40% Fewer Emissions

Hey everybody – here’s a great idea: Let’s cut American greenhouse gas emissions 40% and energy demand 30%, then create 2.7 million jobs while lowering the national unemployment rate 1.5%

Oh, and by the way, this will only cost 1.2% of the current United States gross domestic product. Sounds like a no-brainer, right? Now it gets better – these are green jobs, and renewable energy is the key to unlocking it all.

Welcome to the brave new world that’s “truly within reach” according to “Green Growth: A U.S. Program for Controlling Climate Change and Expanding Job Opportunities,” an upcoming report from the University of Massachusetts and Center for American Progress. read more>>>

Lend Lease and Green Energy Corp. Join Research Triangle Cleantech Cluster

September 12, 2014 - Two companies focused on sustainable energy development and deployment have joined the Research Triangle Cleantech Cluster (RTCC), the initiative of business, government, academic and nonprofit leaders working to accelerate the region’s cleantech economy. Lend Lease, one of the world’s largest property, infrastructure and construction management firms, has joined the RTCC as a professional services member. Microgrid software provider Green Energy Corp. has joined as an entrepreneur member.

“Lend Lease deploys innovative technologies created by regional companies within its construction management practices and throughout its housing and commercial developments worldwide, and it develops clean technologies of its own. read more>>>