acore-logo

           

News

Addressing air pollution and climate change with clean energy

June 17 -- This weekend, for the third year in a row, I’ll be traveling to Washington, D.C., to push Congress to enact meaningful legislation that will rein in climate change. Many people would view this as a fool’s errand, given the gridlock that exists in Washington right now, but I’ve found a number of reasons to be hopeful. >>View Article

New England states move to increase hydropower

June 17 -- Hydropower could play a larger role in New England’s energy mix as five of the region’s states, including Massachusetts, move to import more of it — most likely from Canada — and at least one has passed a law that could allow electricity from large-scale hydrolectric dams to be classified as green as wind or solar energy. >>View Article

$278 Million A Year In Geothermal Benefits For US

June 14 -- The annual health and environmental benefits to the United States from geothermal energy have been estimated to be $278 million a year, according to the Geothermal Energy Association. Binary geothermal energy plants produce almost no fossil fuel emissions, and other types only trace amounts of pollutants. Argonne National Laboratories found that hydrothermal binary plants have some of the lowest emissions of any energy technology, in their 2010 life-cycle emissions study. Most new geothermal plants that have recently come online in the US are this type. >>View Article

Sun, Drugs and Rock N' Roll: Bonnaroo Goes Solar

June 14 -- This year's Bonnaroo music festival, which starts Thursday, will feature 80,000 sweat-soaked music fans, dozens of bands, countless ridiculous costumes and a permanent solar power array that'll help keep Paul McCartney's set running during "Hey Jude." >>View Article

Wind power getting cheaper for Oklahoma utility customers

June 14 -- Wind power is getting to be a less expensive proposition for many Oklahoma electrical users. Oklahoma Gas and Electric Co. has slashed the price of its Wind Power program, which allows customers to get 25 percent, 50 percent or 100 percent of their electricity from wind. >>View Article

AEP to add wind power in mid-west U.S. to meet renewable demand

June 13 -- U.S. power company American Electric Power Co Inc (AEP) will increase the amount of wind power it delivers in Indiana, Michigan and Oklahoma as consumers demand more renewable energy. AEP is buying more renewables as federal regulators crack down on emissions from the company's mostly coal-fired power plants and states and consumers demand utilities buy more power from renewable sources like wind and solar. >>View Article

 

Biomass residues are a valuable sustainable energy source

June 13 -- A report on greenhouse gas emissions earlier this week by the International Energy Agency will have policymakers once again discussing sustainable energy options.  Reasons for this renewed interest range from energy security to protection of our natural resources.  Paper and wood products manufacturers have long known the benefits of using biomass residues to produce energy and, in optimizing its use, have reduced greenhouse gas emissions 10.5 percent since 2005, with a goal to reach 15 percent by 2020. >>View Article

 

Richard Caperton: Leveling the Playing Field Between Dirty and Clean Energy

June 13 -- We recently hosted nationally recognized energy finance expert Richard Caperton for our ongoing Scaling Green's Communicating Energy lecture series. We've posted the curtain raiser on this series of posts about Caperton's remarks on Master Limited Partnerships (MLPs), and their advantages and disadvantages relative to wind energy's Production Tax Credit and solar's Investment Tax Credit. As Caperton points out, clean energy's most valuable incentives have been neither permanent nor reliable, unlike  the perennial welfare check dirty energy sectors get from the taxpayers each year. >>View Article

 

Ask Bill Clinton: How Can We Encourage Homeowners to Adopt Solar Energy?

June 13 -- We need to develop in every state a network of cooperation in which contractors, utilities, building and home owners, tenants, and government agencies understand the shared benefits of solar energy and work together to accelerate its deployment. Our outdated energy grid’s outages cost the U.S. economy $25 billion or more every year, according to a recent Morgan Stanley study using Department of Energy data. Recent extreme weather events have had devastating effects on our aging infrastructure and make a stronger case than ever to build a more resilient and reliable energy system. Distributed solar energy will help us to build that resilience and reliability, both for the nation and for individual owners of homes and buildings. >>View Article

 

The Power—and Beauty—of Solar Energy

June 13 -- Utility power plants are many things—sprawling, expensive, often polluting—but one thing they are not is beautiful. Power plants are the engines of modern society, but we’d rather they stay out of the way. The Ivanpah solar thermal plant is something different. Soon to be completed in California’s Mojave Desert, Ivanpah will provide nearly 400 megawatts of electricity. It will do so with the sun, but the not the way you might expect. Solar photovoltaic panels—the sort usually seen on rooftops—convert sunlight directly into electricity. That’s elegant, but limited—each panel produces only a little bit of power, and that power stops flowing as soon as the sun disappears. >>View Article

 

More Articles...

  1. Midlands Voices: Wind energy bill to boost rural areas
  2. Greenspace: Clean jobs are growing industry in Minnesota
  3. Wind tower manufacturer sending regular shipments aboard ferry
  4. Natural gas and renewables key to Texas’ electricity future