“Sustainable energy is vital to Ireland’s economic recovery and job creation. Actions such as home energy upgrades and business energy cost savings are already proving how costs can be lowered and jobs created. At the same time, Ireland is exploiting its great natural resource – renewable energy – and thus dramatically reducing its imports of fossil fuels.

The price of solar panels has declined 60% since the beginning of 2011, according to SEIA. Lower prices for silicon — a main ingredient in the panels — and massive investments in manufacturing capacity, especially by the Chinese, have helped push down prices.

And then there are the bottles themselves. The plastic that is used is polyethyleneglycolterephthalate (PET). There are some real issues here with production and disposal. Historically, the raw materials, namely ethylene glycol and terephthalic acid, are derived from fossil fuels, a waste of a valuable resource. And while PET can be recycled, the overall recycling rate is low, with the majority of bottles being discarded improperly and taking up space in landfill.

Anyone concerned with the quality of tap water can easily avail themselves of a variety of filters that will produce water comparable to the bottled variety, at a fraction of the cost. Whether this has an impact on health is debatable, but removal of traces of chlorine can improve the taste. … DT:  Back in my lab days we were warned not to drink distilled water. 

March 15 (Bloomberg) — The cost of living in the U.S. rose more than projected in February due to the biggest jump in gasoline prices in more than three years. The retreat in fuel expenses this month signals inflation will hover around the Federal Reserve’s goal. Sara Eisen reports on Bloomberg Television’s "In The Loop." (Source: Bloomberg)

Commonwealth Edison (NYSE: EIX) is pushing Illinois legislators to approve $2.6 billion in rate hikes over the next 10 years in order to expedite completion of the state’s "smart grid", which holds the promise of allowing operators to manage power distribution much more effectively and could save customers $187 million annually. — Chicago Tribune

The U.S. Interior Departmentgave the go-ahead this week to three major renewable energy projects on BLM-managed land in California and Nevada:

– The McCoy Solar Energy project near Blythe, California – proposed by McCoy Solar, […] is a 750 MW photovoltaic solar facility that would be one of the largest solar projects in the world.

– The Desert Harvest Solar Farm, proposed by EDF Renewable Energy, will be a 150 MW photovoltaic facility near Desert Center, California.

– The Searchlight Wind Energy Project near Searchlight, Nevada is a 200 MW project […]

Advanced biofuels

Allies of the oil and grocery industries unsuccessfully pushed to have the renewable fuels standard waived last summer in response to widespread drought that reduced the nation’s corn harvest. The mandate, passed by Congress in 2005, called for 7.5 billion gallons of ethanol to be blended into the nation’s fuel supply by 2012. It was expanded in 2007 to require 36 billion gallons to be blended by 2020. Of that, 21 billion gallons must be advanced biofuels.