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China Invests Billions in International Renewable Energy Projects
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Tag Archives: Green Energy
A Significant Win for Clean Energy in Colorado
See on Scoop.it – Green & Sustainable News
Today Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper signed a measure to expand and improve the state’s Renewable Energy Standard that will drive clean energy investment, increase jobs and renewable project development in rural Colorado.
Duane Tilden‘s insight:
>As a result of the move by Xcel and the Governor’s signature on SB 252, Colorado will have an additional 1,000 MW of renewable energy or a 40 percent increase from the current amount of installed renewable energy in the state.
The announcement pulled the rug from under fossil fuel funded opponents of SB 252 who had argued renewable energy is too expensive.
The bill, co-sponsored by Senate President John Morse and House Speaker Mark Ferrandino, will also expand opportunities for distributed generation and eliminates unnecessary preferences for in-state generation.<
See on switchboard.nrdc.org
101-Year-Old Toledo Museum of Art Building Goes Temporarily “Off the Grid” After 20 Years of Implementing Green Initiatives – absolutearts.com
See on Scoop.it – Green Building Operations – Systems & Controls, Maintenance & Commissioning
Museum briefly becomes a provider, rather than user, of electricity
Duane Tilden‘s insight:
>TOLEDO, OHIO–On Tuesday, May 21 the Toledo Museum of Art achieved a milestone in its 20-year effort to reduce energy consumption: its 101-year-old Beaux Arts main building stopped drawing power from the electrical grid and actually started returning power to the system. The ongoing process, which incorporates using sustainable energy practices such as solar power, energy-efficient lighting, micro turbines and chillers, has resulted in hundreds of thousands of dollars in cost savings over the years.
[…]
Bernhard cited lighting as a good example. The first generation of LED lights weren’t suitable for illuminating and protecting art, so they were bypassed at the time. Now that the technology has dramatically improved, LED fixtures are now being introduced into the galleries, where lights frequently burn out from continual usage. The new lights not only save energy but last much longer, decreasing labor costs associated with the constant replacement of bulbs. The lighting in the renovated lot is also provided by new LED fixtures, which provide greater illumination while using less electricity
Bintz and Bernard also added new micro turbines and chillers to the power plant at TMA’s world-famous TMA Glass Pavilion during last year’s energy upgrade. The heat from the building’s working glass hot shop is recycled into the rest of the building during cold months. While generating electricity, the micro turbine waste heat is used to heat the building in the colder months and generate chilled water for air conditioning in the summer.<
See on www.absolutearts.com
Waste Management’s Hidden Value Driver Doesn’t Stink – DailyFinance
See on Scoop.it – Green Energy Technologies & Development
One thing has plagued mankind from the very first man caves tens of thousands of years ago to the streets of modern day cities: waste. Where do you
Duane Tilden‘s insight:
>Waste Management has quietly become a leader in waste to energy (WtE) and landfill gas to energy (LGTE) technologies. […] The company, using various sources of waste as feedstock, generates up to 550 MW of renewable energy each year – enough to power almost 1.2 million homes. Internal goals call for increasing that figure to 915 MW (2 million homes) by the end of the decade.
Waste to energy
Waste Management’s waste to energy services ignite solid and municipal waste to produce syngas, which is burned to spin turbines and, alas, create renewable electricity. Wheelabrator, the company’s subsidiary, operates 17 WtE facilities in the United States that can convert over 8 million tons of waste into 333 MW each year. That is second only to Covanta, which owns 44 facilities that convert over 20 million tons of waste into 9 million MWh of electricity each year – equivalent to 8% of all renewable energy in the United States.<
See on www.dailyfinance.com
Solar Air Conditioning: A technological development opportunity in renewable energy (2010) | Solarthermalworld
See on Scoop.it – Green Energy Technologies & Development
This presentation comes from Puerto Rico’s Universidad del Turabo, and explores the benefits of solar thermal air conditioning, the technology that makes this application possible, and how its use can be expanded in Puerto Rico and the Caribbean.
Duane Tilden‘s insight:
Interesting technologies in Solar and Waste-Heat powered A/C
See on solarthermalworld.org
Work begins on largest North American fuel cell – Natural Gas to Electricity
See on Scoop.it – Green Energy Technologies & Development
Dominion, one of the US’ largest energy companies, and FuelCell Energy Inc have begun construction of the largest fuel cell power project in North America.
Duane Tilden‘s insight:
>Dominion Bridgeport Fuel Cell, which is being built next to the Interstate 95 motorway and the Northeast rail corridor, will produce 14.9 megawatts of clean energy, enough to power approximately 15,000 homes. It will use an electro-chemical process that converts natural gas into electricity.<
See on www.renewableenergyfocus.com
An Important, and Sometimes Overlooked, Energy Efficiency Tool
Power plant cancellations: Green Energy Act looms behind gas plant mess | Toronto Star
See on Scoop.it – Green & Sustainable News
The Green Energy Act stripped Ontarians of their right to appeal decisions on locating energy facilities.
Duane Tilden‘s insight:
>Former premier Dalton McGuinty told a legislative committee this week that “there was a faulty selection process for gas plant sites and they were wrongly located and had to be shut down.”
But that faulty process was the result of his much-ballyhooed Green Energy Act. And the cost of the faulty process and the subsequent shutdown of the Oakville and Mississauga sites will be $585 million or more.
[…]
The result is that Ontario electricity rates, at one time among the lowest in North America, are now some of the highest. Ontario residential customers are paying about three times more for electricity than they did when McGuinty took office. Ontario industry, which used to benefit from low electricity costs, is suffering.<
See on www.thestar.com
New Study: Distributed Solar Energy Provides $34 Million in Benefits to Arizona Ratepayers | SEIA
See on Scoop.it – Green & Sustainable News
WASHINGTON, DC – A study released today shows that distributed solar generation (DG) and net energy metering will provide Arizona Public Service (APS) customers with $34 million in annual benefits.
Duane Tilden‘s insight:
>The study found that for each dollar of cost, DG provides $1.54 worth of benefits to APS customers. The net benefits for APS customers will amount to $34 million per year beginning in 2015. Benefits include savings on expensive and polluting conventional power and power plants; reduced investments in transmission and distribution infrastructure; reduced electricity lost during transportation over power lines, as distributed solar power is generated and consumer locally; and savings on the cost of meeting renewable energy requirements.
“This study clearly shows that solar offers concrete net benefits to all APS ratepayers, regardless of whether or not they have installed solar” said Carrie Cullen Hitt, senior vice president of state affairs at the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA). “It’s essential that we keep smart policies like net metering in place so that Arizona can continue to benefit from its abundant solar resources.”<
See on www.seia.org
Fluorescent Dye Boosts Solar Cell Efficiency by a Whopping 38 Percent
See on Scoop.it – Green Energy Technologies & Development
Squaraine dye helps to improve light absorption, recycle electron and enhance the light to energy conversion in solar cells, increasing efficiency by a whopping 38 percent.
Duane Tilden‘s insight:
>The Yale researchers relied on Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET), a well-known biochemical mechanism, to achieve this radical new energy conversion rate.
“In this type of solar cell—FRET-based heterojunction polymer solar cells—extra energy is able to migrate from one molecule to another over long distances. The dye, which is highly absorbent in the near-infrared region, both broadens the spectral absorption of solar cells and enhances electricity transmission,” Physorg explains.<
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