Renewable Energy | ClimateBiz.com

Onion Power: Tops, Tails and Skins Become Electricity

Matthew Wheeland — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 05:56:00 -0700

Gills Onions, a large-scale onion processor in Oxnard, Calif., is unveiling a first-of-its-kind method of turning waste from business operations into electricity and major cost savings.

U.K. Low Carbon Transition Plan Puts Government In Charge of Renewables

James Murray — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 10:16:00 -0700

The U.K.'s Low Carbon Transition Plan released Wednesday secures wide-ranging praise as the government outlines how it plans to deliver deep emission cuts of 34 percent below 1990 levels by 2020.

Discarded Food Finds New Life as Electricity

Tilde Herrera — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 14:17:00 -0700

Unwanted, thrown away food in the San Francisco Bay Area soon find new life as electricity. The East Bay Municipal District plans to dramatically boost the amount of food scraps it converts to energy via anaerobic digestion from 90 tons per week to 1,000 tons, or 200 tons per weekday.

California's Solar Cities

GreenBiz Staff — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 12:55:00 -0700

This report from the nonprofit Environment California charts the growth of solar power installations in California, and ranks that state's top cities for solar development.

Solar Incentives in S.F. Show How Smart Green Investments Pay Off

Gavin Newsom — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 11:17:00 -0700

Since San Francisco's solar energy incentive program GoSolarSF launched last year, the city has seen a 450 percent increase in applications over the previous year; putting the city in third place over much larger and sunnier California cities, and providing environmental and economic boosts despite a sluggish economy.

Path to $3B in Stimulus Funds Revealed to Renewable Energy Developers

Tilde Herrera — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 12:01:00 -0700

The Energy and Treasury departments released eagerly awaited guidance Thursday to help renewable energy project developers apply for roughly $3 billion in stimulus funds, which experts say will open the market to many technologies that weren't economically feasible before.

Why Biofuels Burned Up (Your) Dollars

Marc Gunther — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 11:19:00 -0700

Farm state politicians, entrepreneurs and venture capitalists have sold biofuels to rest of us as a way to revive rural America, attack the problem of global warming and reduce our dependence on foreign oil. In response, investors and taxpayers have poured many millions of dollars into corn ethanol. But returns have been skimpy, says a new report.

Technology for a Low-Carbon Future

ClimateBiz Staff — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 16:15:00 -0700

This report from the Climate Group finds that scaling up energy efficiency and renewable energy while avoiding deforestation can dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the short term, and are much-needed steps to achieve global climate goals.

Coca Cola to Put Fuel Cells to Work at N.Y. Bottling Plant

GreenBiz Staff — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 12:06:00 -0700

Coca Cola signed a 10-year contract with UTC Power that will bring two fuel cells to a southern New York bottling plant, where they will produce enough heat and energy to satisfy nearly a third of the facility's needs. The state of New York also provided $2 million for the project.

Can Mud Make the Perfect Biofuel?

Marc Gunther — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 10:42:00 -0700

In the search for a clean, planet-friendly fuel, the startup Qteros has discovered and refined a microbe it calls the Q Microbe that turns biomass -- switchgrass, wood chips, grass, corn stover or even municipal liquid waste -- into ethanol.

Natural Gas: The Rodney Dangerfield of Fuels

Marc Gunther — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 08:29:00 -0700

In the energy and climate change debate, environmentalists are mostly united in their feelings about coal (very bad), gasoline (avoid gas guzzlers), nuclear energy (scary), hydropower (small is better than big), wind (good unless you worry about birds), solar thermal (nifty) and rooftop solar PV (even niftier). But what about natural gas?

We Can Solve the Climate Crisis

Marc Gunther — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 09:32:00 -0700

Sunil Paul thinks big. He also is well-connected in D.C. and has an exquisite sense of timing. He released his report Gigaton Throwdown in the company of green jobs czar Van Jones and key players from Energy Secretary Steve Chu’s brain trust on the eve of the House vote on the climate bill.

What Does Big Solar Want? What Doesn't It Want?

Marc Gunther — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 03:03:00 -0700

Rarely does an industry come to Washington and hold a press conference to talk about why it wants to be given a leg up over the competition. But that's what the solar power industry did this week.

Tracking the Stimulus Spending with Recovery.org

Marc Gunther — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 12:44:00 -0700

GreenBiz.com's senior writer Marc Gunther speaks with Eric Gillespie, the CIO of Onvia about how his firm's website, Recovery.org, is helping companies track federal stimulus spending -- and get a slice of the pie.

The 'Gigaton Throwdown' and the Big Hairy Audacious Question

Joel Makower — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 09:51:00 -0700

What would it take to aggressively scale up clean energy to have a major impact on jobs, energy independence and climate change over the next 10 years? The Gigaton Throwdown report asks just that -- and offers answer to the question.