FLORIDA: The Sunshine State has a large and growing piece of America's clean energy economy. Florida ranks in the top 10 states for jobs in the clean energy economy in 2007, with more than 30,000, and it attracted nearly $117 million in venture capital in the past three years, half of which has supported clean energy generation. The state created an Energy Systems Consortium among state universities to leverage the expertise of its research community to boost its clean technology industry.
]]>In 2006, California produced $2.17 of GDP for every 10,000 BTU of energy consumed. In comparison, the rest of the United States produced $1.29 for every 10,000 BTU of energy consumed.
Therefore, the difference in energy productivity between California and the rest of the U.S. is about 88 cents per 10,000 BTU of energy consumed.
The CALIFORNIA GREEN INNOVATION INDEX (2009) provides insight on a California culture that includes three decades of ambitious state environmental and energy policies, putting California on a path to energy independence and one of the lowest per capita carbon footprints in the nation, all the while growing one of the most vigorous economies in the world.
Solar is one of the renewable energies leading the new green economy in California with the Million Solar Roofs program, extensive solar PV installation training infrastructure development, and utility scale solar PV and solar thermal installations to meet California's demand for renewable energy and mandates in AB 32 and related greenhouse gas legislation. ]]>
Each low income housing unit in this exemplary solar and efficiency project, has high-efficiency water heaters and heating, ventilation
and air conditioning systems. The units also have windows, insulation and
radiant heat barriers rated to reduce energy use. The energy efficiency measures
exceed California's Title 24 building codes for energy efficiency by at
least 25%. And that's significant because the Title 24 requirements include a 25% savings over conventional construction!
The 12-kilowatt solar PV system will generate an estimated 18,700 kilowatt-hours per year, cutting electric bills at the complex by an estimated $2,000 per year.
The photovoltaic solar system qualified for California state rebates, and SMUD (Sacramento Municipal Utility Department) negotiated a rebate package that helped the developer install the energy-efficient equipment.
The U.S. Green Building Council is rolling out its new Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) guidelines, updated for 2009 and newly approved by the USGBC membership.
Described as some of the most significant changes to the LEED system, LEED 2009 has re-weighted certain actions, based on scientific research, in favor of increasing energy efficiency and reducing carbon emissions in new and existing buildings. It also entails a new set of regional credits, which are points tailored to match environmental priorities in certain geographic areas.
The USGBC will also introduce new processes for amending its LEED standards, including a pilot period for individual credits that can be tested and incorporated on their own.
The nonprofit USGBC organization received more than 7,000 comments on how to update its 8-year-old, much-used green building rating system before LEED 2009 passed through its 18,000-member voting ballot.
Get LEED information at USGBC.About 85 percent of nonresidential construction companies would either cancel layoffs or add new employees if states embarked on stimulus-funded infrastructure projects, according to AGC's survey. And construction companies would increase their payrolls by 25 percent if the stimulus included new infrastructure investments.
Stephen Sandherr, chief executive officer of AGC, said builders across the country are urging Congress to include infrastructure investments in the stimulus. AGC is calling for $2.2 billion to help renovate hundreds of federal facilities and for additional funds to repair crumbling schools.
Indications are that new tax incentives are being planned to encourage conversions to energy-efficient buildings, construction of renewable energy facilities, remediation of Brownfields projects and construction of new airport and commercial projects.
McGraw-Hill Construction
released a report in November 2008 that found the value of green building
construction starts was up five-fold from 2005 to 2008.
According to the report, Green Outlook 2009: Trends Driving Change, starts were up from $10 billion in 2005 to $36 to $49 billion this year and could triple by 2013, reaching $96 to $140 billion.
The report is based on data found in the McGraw-Hill Construction
Network and found that, since 2005, the
perceived benefits of green building have increased as people become
more informed about green building.
The decrease in operating costs is the most often cited benefit (13.6 percent, up from 8 percent to 9 percent in 2005),
Next is the increase in building values (10.9 percent, up from 7.5 percent in 2005).
The McGraw-Hill Cos. (NYSE: MHP) is a global information services provider with more than 280 offices in 40 countries and $6.8 billion in sales in 2007.
]]>California's per-capita electricity use is about 40% less than the national average, Roland-Holst said, largely because of government-mandated energy efficiency standards for utilities, buildings and appliances put into effect over the last four decades.
Roland-Holst found that the lower use has enabled Californians to save $56 billion on energy since 1972. That money was spent in the local economy, he said, instead of on imported oil, out-of-state electricity or building new power plants. The result: 1.5 million additional California jobs with a total payroll exceeding $45 billion.
Read more about the report: Energy Efficiency, Innovation, and Job Creation in California (by David Roland-Holst, UC Berkeley, Oct. 2008)
]]>