The GreenSource Blog

Video: Secretary of Energy Steven Chu at ARPA-E Summit

2011-03-02T10:52:00.000-08:00

Earth2Tech posted this video of Secretary Chu answering questions about the country's renewable energy strategy at the ARPA-E Summit, which concludes today in Washington D.C.

Coral Rebound In The Phoenix Islands Protected Area (PIPA)

2011-02-28T12:42:00.000-08:00

The January 2011 issue of National Geographic has an article by Greg Stone, chief scientist for oceans at Conservation International, about the rebound of a coral reef system in the Phoenix Islands.

Because fish populations had been protected here, the reefs remained surprisingly resilient even after suffering one of the worst bleaching events ever recorded.

Located near the equator in the Central Pacific between Hawaii and Fiji, the Phoenix Islands form an archipelago several hundred miles long. The islands are part of the Republic of Kiribati, an island nation threatened by climate change-induced sea level rise. The region is home to an enormous coral reef system, which Stone and an Indian Ocean conservation organization, CORDIO, first surveyed a decade ago.

According to the article, the El Nino of 2002-03 brought a large mass of abnormally warm seawater to the region, which remained in the area for half a year and killed off much the underlying corals. But thanks to protections put in place in 2006, when the area was declared a reserve, almost half of this coral is appearing to be growing back. The protected fish populations kept the coral rebound from being impeded by runaway algae and seaweed growth.

Stone and Conservation International had helped Kiribati to protect this California-sized area of 158,453-square-miles, called The Phoenix Islands Protected Area (PIPA).

Stone concludes:

As oceans continue to absorb the impacts of human activities and of climate change, we'll need more large protected areas like PIPA to help ecosystems survive. The oceans are our life-support system. There's never been a more important time to take care of them.

You Can Get Closer to a Zero Waste Home

2011-02-25T09:57:00.000-08:00

My better half recently showed me this article about a zero waste household in Mill Valley California. It was an insightful read. The article details the efforts taken by Scott and Bea Johnson and their two children to reduce the amount of waste they bring into their home in the first place, to ultimately minimize the waste that comes out of it.

Below are some techniques that we read about and that we are already putting in practice. Some are easy things you can do right away, and some take a bit more practice. (Note: I make some embellishments here based on personal preference):

- Use glass jars at home to keep foods like pasta, cereals and grains, cookies and snacks and even spices

- Purchase these foods in the bulk-foods section. Use small textile-based reusable bags* to pick this stuff up.

- Make a smarter decision at the store. Buy items with little to no packaging. Get bread at a bakery, not at a supermarket where it comes in plastic bags, reduce the amount of toiletries you pick up to what you really need, and get the reusable cloth produce bags** for your produce instead of ripping countless plastic bags off the roll each week and using twist ties. Any product you see with excessive packaging - try to think about an alternative that is better.

- Bringing your own shopping tote is a given!

- Bring your travel coffee mug to Starbucks or your favorite cafe. Sometimes you get a discount, and sometimes you can get more coffee for the price of a tall!

- Encourage gifts of experience. And if you give something physical - make sure it has lasting value, rather than a use-once-and-dispose kind of a thing.

- Recycle your waste. You may even be able to recycle plastic bags - Safeway supermarkets has a drop-off bin that you can bring your plastic bags to for recycling. You'd be amazed at how fast these add up in your home if you don't actively refuse them and bring your own shopping totes to the market. It's gross to know that these bags and other plastic packaging is just collecting in landfills, sometimes our oceans, and polluting our world. Don't contribute.

*You can find such bags at the bulk section of some natural food stores, or do a search online to purchase.
**3Bbags is one of many cloth produce bags you can get at Whole Foods and online.

Utterly inspiring. You too can make lifestyle changes to minimize your environmental impact. Start with the easy stuff, and see where you get!

You can keep up on the Johnson family at Bea's blog here. They also continue to receive media attention for their efforts.

SunChips Debuts Compostable Packaging

2009-04-17T09:40:00.001-07:00

This is awesome. Today SunChips started a media campaign for their new compostable packaging initiative, which will be rolled out bit by bit this year, with a fully compostable bag making its debut on Earth Day next year.

A huge pet peeve of mine is un-necessary packaging, and individually wrapped goods (ketchup packets really take the cake here). Hopefully we'll see more of this type of thing happening across industries.

The bag is made out of polylactic acid, which is trade named Ingeo, and print ads in People magazine will feature swatches of the material as part of the marketing campaign.

Pepcom Green PR Lunch

2009-03-04T01:26:00.000-08:00

So I'm heading to a Pepcom green PR lunch today, and am excited because I haven't met a lot of pr folks out there working in the green space. I know there are a lot of us - as the green segment has obviously ballooned over the past 2 years - but nonetheless, I think it will be good to meet some more folks in the trenches, see what they are seeing and compare notes.

I also think that its going to be interesting because it just goes to show how many of us there are - the mere existence of this lunch is telling. What inspired this post is not that however.

Last night I was thinking about what made me jump into green PR, and my early experiences in high school including AP English and a paper I wrote on endangered species. Moving on to college, I kept listening to that part of me that was interested in the environment. I read a book called "The Heat is On," by Ross Gelbspan.

Ross was a great inspiration to me in college - I was also thinking about a journalism career, and if there was anyone writing about the things that mattered, it was him. Not only did he write a book that foretold the consequences of global warming well before "An Inconvenient Truth," but he also covered things like renewable energy. A concept that stuck with me since back then was that if we don't take a leadership role in developing these technologies, we will be stuck purchasing them from foreign developers. Instead, we can be putting Americans to work on these projects here and creating a clean energy infrastructure. Indeed, if we take a back seat and we're purchasing these technologies from Europe - we might as well continue to import foreign oil too.

But truly what inspired this post (to get to the point) is that back then, when Ross wrote his book, he discussed the findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which is set up by the UN and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). Many who are new to the green movement may have heard of the IPCC recently as they released a fourth climate change assesment report in 2007. The IPCC released their first report in 1990, and the second in 1995. What I took away from what Ross and other sources wrote about the IPCC's findings in their early reports was that despite the scientific evidence for global warming, businesses were mostly resistant to change as business-as-usual economics continued to take precedence.

That all needs to change.

I also concluded in an independent study of the environmental movement that because of the profit motive, their power to mobilize individuals and resources, and their grand scale and reach, businesses would have to be the true creators of change. Now - we have a phenomenon called green business. Some iterations can be less green than others - but the efforts are a needed start. And Hunter Lovins will tell you something to that effect at one of the Presidio School of Management's open houses.

But getting to my point - what dawned on me last night was that the mere fact that the IPCC issued their first report in 1990 means that, for some years, research was apparent enough to motivate the United Nations to create the IPCC in the first place. Fact is we have known that there is a need for a greening of operations in this world for quite some time, and so I think we are deeper into this storm than most of us may know.

So, today I'm putting on my green hat, inspired once again to spout out and hopefully inspire some other folks. Seems like a lot of capability has been built into Silicon Valley for supporting green action - and I'm glad to be a part of that. I look forward to meeting others with the same goal.

IT and Communications Technology Energy Efficiency Workshop in Silicon Valley

2008-10-16T15:36:00.000-07:00

Telecommunications and IT experts participated in a vision and roadmap workshop for energy efficiency over the past two days in Sunnyvale. The Silicon Valley Leadership Group (SVLG), the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA), and Yahoo! sponsored the event.

According to the US DOE office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), the electricity consumed in data centers and telecom systems is already 3 percent of the

U.S.

total and growing rapidly.

Input provided at this workshop will be circulated to participants and additional members of the sectors for review and comment. Upon final incorporation of the feedback, a vision and roadmap will be released to the wider research community, where the delineated research pathways should help to align public and private technology investment, lead to collaborative activities between industry and DOE, and accelerate progress in reducing power demand.

RETC Legislation Update, and more

2008-09-25T11:00:00.000-07:00

The United States Senate on Tuesday voted by an overwhelming majority to extend the Production (PTC) and Investment Tax Credits (ITC). The tax measure was passed by a vote of 93-2. Now it goes back to the U.S. House of Representatives where it could be approved later this week.

Get the details at Renewable Energy World.

Residents in the city of Berkeley may be able to apply to finance solar power systems through their property taxes thanks to a new program the city is working on in conjunction with Renewable Funding.

Finally - Greentech media will be running their Third Quarter Greentech Venture Summary next week. Here's a sneak peak at their data with the top Greentech VC deals of '08.

Inside Renewable Energy: Renewable Energy Finance Forum

2008-06-23T22:47:00.000-07:00

This week's Inside Renewable Energy podcast featured interviews with leaders in the financial community, from the 5th Anniversary Renewable Energy Finance Forum in New York City, June 18-19, 2008.

Editor and host Stephen Lacy discussed the latest trends in cleantech investments with Michael Liebrich, CEO of New Energy Finance, Nancy Floyd, Founder and Managing Director, Nth Power, Kevin Walsh, Managing Director of Renewable Energy at GE Energy Financial Services, and John Geesmen, former California energy commissioner and Co-Chair of the Board of Directors of the American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE).

Topics focused on industry consolidation, tax equity financing, carbon cap and trade schemes, venture capital, and the impact of the political stalemate in Washington over federal tax incentives.

A Changing World, Indeed

2008-01-03T07:30:00.000-08:00

Here's a revealing story from the WSJ this morning. With oil futures hitting a record $100 yesterday, setting a new US benchmark, and surging demand in developing nations such as China to blame, economies, the balance of power and culture as we know it is changing.

The region's new wealth has triggered a bout of deal making that has bankers rushing to the petrostates of the Persian Gulf. McKinsey & Co. estimates that the world's biggest investors of petrodollars -- including state-owned vehicles known as sovereign-wealth funds -- now manage as much as $3.8 trillion in assets. The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, which McKinsey estimates manages $900 billion in assets, is today among the world's largest financial-market participants -- about the same size as the Bank of Japan.

Underscoring the region's new global financial heft, Abu Dhabi recently swooped to the rescue of Citigroup Inc. with a $7.5 billion cash infusion as it struggled with write-downs from this year's credit crisis.

The piece goes on to illustrate how oil prices are lessening the US's effect in Darfur and Sudan, as well as with Iran's nuclear ambitions, and also touches on air fares. A good read.

Key Provisions for Renewables Removed from the latest Energy Bill

2007-11-14T06:49:00.000-08:00

Renewable Energy Access reports that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi decided to remove a renewable portfolio standard (RPS) and tax-based incentives for the stimulation of renewable energy production in order to pass an energy bill through Congress before Thanksgiving break on Friday, November 16.

Stephen Lacy writes:

Without a long-term extension of the PTC [production tax credit], which expires in December of 2008, [wind power] developers will be unsure about the financial viability of their projects. If the market starts to slow down in the U.S., manufacturers will be unwilling to scale up production or enter the country all together.

There's only one week left before Congress leaves for Thanksgiving recess - renewable energy lobbyists are pushing along at full-steam to support the addition of renewable energy provisions, however at the moment, old dirty energy like coal, oil, biofuels and natural gas will receive continued attention.

There are several emerging technologies that aim to make energy from coal more environmentally viable, and undoubtedly this abundant domestic resource deserves attention as it is not dissapearing anytime soon.

100 Silicon Valley Execs to Drive Plug-In Hybrids Next Year

2007-09-23T21:55:00.000-07:00

The Mercury News reports that by early next year, 100 executives in Silicon Valley will be driving Plug-In Hybrids to acknowledge awareness of global warming by taking action.

The initiative was planned by the The Silicon Valley Leadership Group and its chief executive, Carl Guardino.

The action is a start to a broader mission:

Make the region a leader in conservation, in the use of alternative fuels and in reducing global warming; and to exert the valley's influence when it comes to pushing governments and big corporations to act to solve these problems.

Sass Somekh heads the plug-in program. His vision, which he admits is distant from the present:

200,000 one-megawatt windmills turning at night and generating enough renewable power for 200 million cars.

The goal is to have the batteries in plug-in hybrids store energy for others to use while connected to the grid when they are not in use, however, according to a senior director for smart energy at PG&E, vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology still requires a lot of investment and research for it to be applicable at scale.

RPS and Tax Credits supported in House Energy Bill

2007-08-05T21:54:00.000-07:00

Here's a few posts that hit regarding the anticipated House of Representatives RPS and Tax Credit bill passed on Saturday.

House Passes Solar Tax Credits and RPS in Energy Bill, Renewable Energy Access

House Passes Energy Bill; Transportation Focus on Biofuels, Mass Transit and Plug-Ins, Green Car Congress

Good News For New Energy, Good News for the U.S. of A., NewEnergyNews

The House voted on a renewable power standard requiring 15% of energy supplied by utilities to originate from renewable sources by 2020. The Senate passed a bill in June, which did not include the RPS or solar tax credits, however the Senate passed fuel efficiency standards for automobiles.

Both the Senate and House will reconcile the respective bills in the fall, however it has been noted that the White House may veto the legislation, citing high energy costs and a lack of stimulus for domestic energy production. If the legislation does pass, however - it would be the first time the federal government has mandated a proportion of energy generation from renewable sources - a step in the right direction.

Energy Harvesting Concepts

2007-07-29T22:25:00.000-07:00

Interesting applications for energy harvesting have caught my eye recently. To get Wikipedia with it;

Energy harvesting (also known as Power harvesting or energy scavenging) is the process by which energy is captured and stored. Frequently this term is applied when speaking about small autonomous devices, like those used in sensor networks. A variety of different methods exist for harvesting energy, such as solar power, ocean tides, piezoelectricity, thermoelectricity, and physical motion.

The first example I came across was in Electronic Design, and the piece refers to piezoelectricity, an electric charge generated by certain materials (notably crystals and certain ceramics) in response to stress, pressure, shaping, etc.

The piece describes the application of such technology to potentially harvest the energy of the beating heart - which would be applicable for powering a pacemaker. Other applications discussed include piezoelectric pushbutton switches, which according to the piece, represent a large portion of potential applications - including powering your overhead lamp during air travel on a commercial airliner.

Then, in Green Options, I read about two grad students from MIT's School of Architecture and Planning that are devising a way to create a sub-flooring system made of movable blocks that harvest human energy created by the footsteps of crowds. The friction created by the blocks sliding against one another in response to the pressure above would create electrical current.

For further exploration, this piece in Electronics Design describes energy harvesting in greater depth, and reviews advances in the fabrication of materials made purposely for piezoelectric applications.

Media Magazine: Green is the New Black

2007-07-28T18:06:00.000-07:00

MediaPost's July issue of Media Magazine reports on a few significant green programming developments both online an on-air, which are a reflection of the spending power of earth-conscious consumerism.

Of the media properties mentioned:

>> Discovery recently unveiled plans to rebrand Discovery Home to tilt the 50 million-subscriber network toward green lifestyle programming. The effort includes a $50 million investment in programming on sustainable development, organic lifestyle and healthy living.

>> Scripps Networks introduced several green-centric online series in the late spring on hgtv.com, diyNetwork.com and hgtvPro.com and planned to air a DIY special on energy saving and an HGTV special on environmentally friendly homes.
>> Green media company Lime plans to debut six new Web series in the third quarter, more than doubling its original online shows. Lime also landed Microsoft as an advertiser for a new ad network that sells ads across Lime.com and other eco-friendly sites. Lime had nearly tripled its number of advertisers and quadrupled its ad revenues in the second quarter compared to the fourth quarter of its last fiscal year.

Longer Term Solar Tax Credit Extention Sought

2007-02-20T21:46:00.000-08:00

I'm a bit late on on this one, but last week, senators Gordon Smith (R-OR) and Ken Salazar (D-CO) introduced legislation to stimulate investment in solar power.

Bill S.590, dubbed the "Securing America's Energy Independence Act," was proposed to finally put an end to the current routine of extending temporary tax credits for solar energy and other renewables, by extending solar energy investment tax credits for homeowners and businesses through 2016. Under current law, the credits are set to expire at the end of next year. Excerpt from the SEIA press release follows:

A long-term extension is essential to reducing the cost of solar energy, as it would create market conditions that allow solar companies to make investments and drive down costs through economies of scale. A longer duration will also be needed to help stimulate the development of large-scale concentrating solar power projects.

SEIA estimated that a long-term credit extension would create approximately 55,000 solar industry jobs by 2016 and encourage states to invest billions of dollars in renewable energy infrastructure. Solar energy would displace four trillion cubic feet of natural gas under the bill, saving American consumers $32 billion over equipment lifetimes.

Read the remainder of the SEIA release here.

Technorati Tags: SEIA, Solar Power, Solar Tax Credit.

Clean tech, the Silicon Valley, and Al Gore

2007-02-03T09:44:00.000-08:00

Al Gore addressed attendees at the Silicon Valley Network's "State of the Valley" conference at Joint Venture on Friday, empowering the region's business and community leaders to take a front-line position in the war on climate change.

While the IPCC was making a very sobering "state of the climate" address, Al Gore spread gospel about the opportunities of clean technology and the Valley's receptiveness to developing the sector, according to the San Jose Mercury News yesterday.

Any doubt that human production of carbon dioxide is accelerating climate change should be gone, he said....

The human species, Gore said, "cannot'' continued its current approach to energy consumption. "We cannot. It would be suicidal. But change is difficult.''

The good news, he suggested, is that Silicon Valley is tackling the crisis. The region, as Gore noted, has recently embraced "clean tech'' with glee.

The Mercury News reported that clean tech funding to firms in the valley increased from $141 million in 2005 to $516 million [ed. note - a 365.95% increase if my math is right!] in 2006, according to the group's latest annual Silicon Valley Index assesment. Compare that with the national figures compiled by the Cleantech Venture Network, which state cleantech VC investment totaled a record $2.9 billion for 2006, representing a 78% increase over 2005 cleantech investment of $1.6 billion and a 140% increase over 2004 investment of $1.2 billion.

These numbers obviously reflect an accelerating growth trend overall, with growth in the Valley outpacing national figures. According to the Merc, the CEO of local Miasole characterized the solar market in the Valley as "just absolutely exploding."

Technorati Tags: Al Gore, Silicon Valley, Cleantech, Renewable Energy, Climate Change, Venture Capital, Solar, IPCC.

Climate Change Legislation around the Corner?

2007-02-02T08:38:00.000-08:00

The stage is set, as the first report since 2001 to emerge from the UN International Panel on Climate Change has been issued today. Here's a piece from today's NYT.

The report is timely, and follows in the wake of a State of the Union Address taking climate change into account for future energy policy, and climate change policy discussions held at Davos, Switzerland.

US Climate Change Partnership, (USCAP), (www.US-CAP.org) has been pushing for swift policy measures directed at enabling economic growth concurrent with greenhouse gas emission reductions via cap and trade system.

It's likely that this perfect storm will yield action.

Looking Back this Week

2007-01-28T20:21:00.000-08:00

On Saturday, the AP published a landmark article giving full and uncontested credibility to the scientific consensus on climate change. Underscoring the paradigm shift occuring in Washington on the issue right now, the article brings to the foreground George W. Bush's acceptance of climate change in his State of the Union Address on Tuesday.

"The years of resistance to the reality of climate change are melting away like the soon-to-be-history snows of Kilimanjaro." - Matt Crenson, AP

Addressing the topic of energy policy, President Bush proclaimed that the new way forward is through technology. He proposed an increase in the renewable fuels standard (RFS) from 7.5 billion gallons by 2012 to 35 billion gallons by 2017. He also spoke of "modernizing" fuel economy standards for vehicles.

The New York Times reported Tuesday in The Energy Challenge series that Bush would signal an increase in the RFS in his State of the Union Address. While pointing out the low energy efficiency of corn-based ethanol, as well as the impacts the industry could have on the agricultural economy and America's position as a leading exporter of corn, the piece summarizes the powers and policy decisions behind the ethanol boom.

The same issue of the Times showcased an electric-electric hybrid based on a Ford Edge crossover. This plug-in hybrid is the first to use a hydrogen fuel cell instead of a combustion engine for back-up. The primary battery is rechargeable directly from the grid via wall outlet, and will last 25 to 30 miles before the fuel cell kicks in. With a $2 million price tag, this one-of-a-kind vehicle will not be commercially available anytime soon, however, the standard plug-in hybrid concept has been gaining traction for its ability to buffer the electric grid.

In addition, a few interesting clean-energy statistics were reported in the Times on Tuesday. According to London-based New Energy Finance, North American private equity and venture capital funds beat out Europe in regards to funding clean-energy development start ups last year - despite the absence of US participation in the Kyoto Protocol. However, according to the Jefferies Group in New York, Europe is home to over half of the world's 22 most valuable publicly traded wind and solar companies. The piece attributed this fact to lapsing wind rebates in the states, as well as a more relaxed regulatory environment and a heightened focus on developing essential infrastructure for wind and solar farms abroad.

What are People Saying: California Plans to Create World's First Global Warming Polution Standard

2007-01-11T01:32:00.000-08:00

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger announced a plan during the State of the State address to reduce fuel carbon content by 10 percent by 2020. The EU has contemplated a similar plan, but right now, California may be the first government to establish one.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that although the new standard could affect gasoline production processes worldwide, the carbon emission reduction would equal taking 3 million cars off the road by 2020. This translates to a reduction of 13 million metric tons of CO2, according to the Chronicle, which is over half of the 24 million metric tons needed to meet 1990 emission levels.

The article states that transportation contributes 40 percent of the state's total carbon dioxide emissions, and such a standard could give alternative fuel technologies a boost.

Being that I am living on planet Earth, whenever I hear or read about an emissions proposal nowadays, little bells go off and I think, ok, but really what's between the lines here? Well, it seems that makers of gasoline and diesel fuel are left to meet the emissions target however they see fit, and this could mean increasing proportions of ethanol.

When I heard this news, I was thinking that I should write something on ethanol production regarding the market for corn, but John over at environmental economics takes this angle tactfully well, so why recreate the wheel? (Previously, I have linked to a great post regarding the ethanol debate, at the Alternative Energy Blog. It features input from the Engineer Poet and is followed by a wonderfully engaged comment stream, so it's definitely worth checking out.)

Here's a technorati search query to see what others are saying about the new standard. Wired blogs also covered the news, and comments follow.

Technorati Tags:

Energy Security Leadership Council Steps Forward, Pushing for National Energy Independence

2006-12-13T22:47:00.000-08:00

The NYT reported today that a group entitled the Energy Security Leadership Council (ESLC), is lobbying Congress and the White House to initiate a campaign to lessen the country's reliance on foreign sources of oil. The council's members hail from the transport and chemical sectors, and include Frederick W. Smith, the founder and chief executive of FedEx (an ESLC co-chair), P.X. Kelley, a retired Marine commandant (the other ESLC co-chair), and prestigious executives from Dow Chemical, Waste Management, Southwest Airlines, a former Navy secretary and the Air Force chief of staff.

The group plans to launch a television and print ad campaign to convey its message that the

must reduce its dependence on foreign oil, and hopefully initiate a paradigm shift that changes the view of oil reserves as a key strategic and economic motivator for the nation's actions.

According to the piece, the group is also begining to meet with government officials. It is pushing for better fuel economy standards for cars, SUVs and heavy trucks, specifically proposing a 4 percent annual increase in fuel economy for vehicles up to 10,000 pounds, increased drilling offshore and within the

United States

, and increased development of the ethanol and biofuels sector.

Efforts to drill in the continental US, most notably the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), have been met with strong opposition from environmentalists; and the debate on the sustainability and practicality of proposed ethanol industry growth is still ablaze. It is difficult to say how successful the group will be in its efforts.

Nonetheless, the membership of this group is impressive, and it has won the endorsement from several politicians. Quoted in the Times piece, is Rep. Steny H. Hoyer, a Maryland Democrat. He states, "when prominent C.E.O.s and military leaders get together to advocate an issue as important as energy security, people listen."

With eyes around the world focused on the situation in Iraq right now, and the US government's current deliberations geared toward changing a strategy that is increasingly being viewed as broken - the timing for such a well-staffed panel to step forward is not all that surprising.

Technorati Tags: Energy Security Leadership Council

Congress Renews Solar Tax Credit

2006-12-13T22:17:00.000-08:00

In the solar energy industry, manufacturers of solar energy technologies can breathe a sigh of relief. But, only for about a year.

Red Herring reports that the extension of the solar tax credit passed, under the Tax Relief and Health Care Act of 2006, as part of a 79-9 vote for extending several tax breaks. Also renewed were energy incentives for wind, biomass, geothermal, and energy-efficient commercial buildings.

The bill passing the extended solar tax credit has two provisions:

Residential Solar Tax Credit: Extends a 30-percent tax credit, created in the Energy Policy Act of 2005, for the purchase of residential solar water heating, photovoltaic equipment, and fuel cell property. Expires after December 31, 2008.

Business Solar Tax Credit and Fuel Cell Tax Credit: Extends a 30-percent business credit, established in the Energy Policy Act of 2005, for the purchase of fuel cell power plants, solar energy property, and fiber-optic property used to illuminate the inside of a structure. After December 31, 2008, the credit reverts to a permanent 10-percent level.

Joel Makower, principal at Clean Edge, a prominent clean technology consultancy, said, "every year-long extension helps, but we need a 10-year extension to create years-long certainty that the market is going to grow."

Experts in the piece agree that the extension should allow for the continued growth of large-scale solar projects in the coming year, however it calls to attention the importance of a longer-term policy. Senator John McCain states that the term of the policy impacts investors.

"If there’s only a two-year horizon, even though they’ve never failed to renew it, there’s less confidence,” he said.

The Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) is pushing for an eight-year extension, and there are hopes that at least something long-term will materialize given the Democratic majority inhabiting Congress right now.

Delivering a sobering dose of practical forecasting, Makower says, "if we can’t get something that simple to pass in the new Congress, there is really no hope."

See the Cleantech blog for more info.

Technorati Tags: Solar Tax Credit, Solar Power, Renewable Energy

EPA Launches Fortune 500 Challenge

2006-12-06T19:16:00.000-08:00

The Sustainable Industries Journal reports that on December 4th the EPA launched a 13-month campaign for Fortune 500 companies to double clean energy purchases from 2.5 billion kilowatt hours (kWh) in 2006 to 5 billion in 2007. Read the EPA press release here.

The campaign, called the Fortune 500 Green Power Challenge, is part of the EPA’s Green Power Partnership program. The program provides partners with tools and promotional resources to help them in coordinating and communicating renewable energy purchase efforts.

Technorati Tags: EPA, Fortune 500 Challenge, Renewable Energy

SRI in Practice

2006-11-22T18:38:00.000-08:00

The article, "No Chickening Out," in the November issue of IR Magazine profiles the head of Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) at Jupiter Asset Management, Emma Howard-Boyd. (Subscription only).

In her position, she oversees funds within six green categories, including clean energy, water management, waste management, green transport, environmental services, and sustainable living. It is her feeling that the next step in SRI will be about how companies communicate long-term issues and their impacts. She also stated that there is not enough emphasis on presenting strategic, financial data concerning the surmounting of sustainability barriers (such as energy cost increases).

However, she did mention that "information flow has improved dramatically" in the past 12 years, with quality IR communication aimed at SRI analysts and increased disclosure either in annual reports or in stand-alone sustainability reports. She singled out both the banking and retail sectors as leading this charge.

Companies that provide goods or services that improve environmental conditions or contribute to sustainable living practices fit Jupiter's criteria for their SRI funds. Banks are capitalizing on responsible lending, and supermarkets touting organics such as Sainsbury enjoy increased sales. Howard -Boyd adds that companies tend to single out SRI analysts only, yet issues such as climate change and energy costs are now "material issues," deserving the attention of all analysts.

The Government Pension Fund of Norway is itself a socially responsible investor, and it made news over the weekend after its value increased in the third quarter by $32.1 billion, the largest quarterly increase in the fund's history. The state investment fund, now formally called The Government Pension Fund - Global, is designed to support an increasing number of retirees in the country by using petroleum revenues to manage long-term, foreign investments. Norway's offshore oil industry makes it the third largest exporter of oil in the world, just behind Saudi Arabia and Russia.

Norges Bank, the central bank of Norway, manages the fund, investing the capital in bonds and equities outside of the country in accordance with protocol administered by Norway's Ministry of Finance. What sort of protocol? For one, the fund can not hold more than 5 percent of a given firm. In addition, the Associated Press reported that, "the $263 billion global fund is under strict government imposed ethical guidelines to ensure that money doesn't go to companies linked to such things as weapons production, human rights abuses, environmental damage or coruption."

The guidelines, which were imposed in 2004, have led to the exclusion of 18 companies from the fund, 12 of which are US based. The Finance Ministry acts on recommendations made by the National Council of Ethics, which periodically reviews the investments. When unethical operations cause a company to fall outside of acceptable terms, the company's shares are sold off, and the name of the company and reason for exclusion are made publicly available.

Obviously this sort of disclosure can have repercussions. Benson Whitney, the U.S. abassador to Norway said that "the stain of an official accusation of bad ethics harms reputations and can have serious economic implications." Selling off all the shares of a banned company certainly has serious economic implications too - and a couple US companies have seen their share prices drop as a result.

While these conditions clearly can provide incentives for improved corporate governance, should the fact that this is a state-owned fund call into question the very ethics of the methods used, which seem to create incentives based on penalties and negative recognition resulting from exclusion, as opposed to positive recognition resulting from inclusion? Is Norway just in its efforts to “weed” out unethical corporate entities, or is it leveraging its resources to unilaterally assume a role as a global hall-monitor, and rather unethically, impose its code of ethics on global markets?

Nonetheless, Knut Kjaer, director for the central bank's investment branch, said that the fund is being copied by a "major player," and "a lot of praise for Norway around the world" has been prompted by the fund, which is now the largest pension fund in Europe.

This state owned fund owns .5 percent of the global public equity market, making it quite influential due to its scale. In an article in the Australian, Kjaer reveals that the bigger you are, the more of an impact your investments will make, however he claims that he tries to minimize the market footprint that this fund leaves with the latest technology and direct links to stock exchanges to "cover our tracks as much as possible."

However, in the same article, he did leave a caveat for other investors to follow the lead of his fund, admitting that working alone on corporate governance doesn't create much impact. But, he stated, "it is only when we come together with other investors on common positions that we can have a real impact."

Thoughts?

Technorati Tags: SRI, Corporate Governance, Corporate Social Responsibility, CSR, The Government Pension Fund - Global

Study: The Future of Energy Costs

2006-11-15T03:26:00.000-08:00

RAND corp. completed a study commissioned by the Washington-based Energy Future Coalition that determined increased substitution of fossil fuels with renewable energy sources could reduce energy expenditures within a decade.

MarketWatch covered the news about the report yesterday.

According to the report, 6 percent of America's energy use comes from renewables, and 3 percent of that is hydropower alone. The study based over 1,500 simulations on a goal to utilize renewable sources for 25 percent of energy use by 2025, and determined we could cut 2.8 million barrels of petroleum per day, and energy cost reductions would be "modest."

Further cost declines for alternative energy technologies could allow for total energy expenditures to drop despite the increase of renewable energy useage. And in the best-case scenario delivered by the Rand report, energy costs in the U.S. could decline 3% - a $40 billion reduction.

Interestingly enough, in the conclusion of the the report it is noted that achieving emissions reductions through the increased use of renewable energy sources could be less expensive than through regulatory processes. (Read this BBC News The Green Room article contributed by Kevin Smith, Researcher for Carbon Trade Watch, who refutes the logic and environmental benefits of carbon trading to control emissions, and recalls hiccups in the EU's Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) to maintain an incentive for the curbing of emissions. See also the altenergystocks.com post entitled, "Carbon Finance . . . The Next Bonanza" for a slightly more functional view of carbon markets and more background information.) An excerpt from the Rand report follows:

"The reduction in CO2 emissions could eliminate two-thirds of the projected increase in CO2 emissions by 2025. Expanding renewables, in short, might be considered a “no-regrets” pollution-reduction policy and climate change strategy."

Unfortunately, there are limits to all studies. Cost projections for energy expenditures varied by small percentages, however, equating to dollar amounts up to $60 billion. This could be largely attributed to the uncertain affects that increased penetration by renewables may have on the energy markets - specifically, the costs of developing renewable energy and the savings from displacing fossil fuels. The conclusion also states that utilizing renewables for the 25 percent goal can impose limited costs, and may be less costly than energy priced without renewables, ONLY if renewables costs do not escalate quickly when renewable energy reaches high penetration levels and if conventional fuel markets remain tight.

The report concedes that there is no way to know exactly how the market will react - and that point is crucial for policy makers as the renewable energy industry in the U.S. continues to grow.

Technorati Tags: Renewable Energy, Fossil Fuels, Energy Costs, Carbon Trading

Data Shows Collapse of Fish Species Emminent

2006-11-06T02:22:00.000-08:00

Recent research findings published in the journal Science on the environmental impacts of overfishing made international newspaper headlines over the weekend.

While the consequences of overfishing are not surprising, the data extrapolated from this particularly comprehensive study certainly are. The NYT reports that the relatively short timetable for 100 percent species collapse forcasted by this study is what seperates it from that of other studies which also predict biodiversity loss and environmental degredation within the oceans. The following is an excerpt from the piece:

“We extracted all data on fish and invertebrate catches from 1950 to 2003 within all 64 large marine ecosystems worldwide,” they wrote. “Collectively, these areas produced 83 percent of global fisheries yields over the past 50 years.”
In an interview, Dr. Worm said, “We looked at absolutely everything — all the fish, shellfish, invertebrates, everything that people consume that comes from the ocean, all of it, globally.”
The researchers found that 29 percent of species had been fished so heavily or were so affected by pollution or habitat loss that they were down to 10 percent of previous levels, their definition of “collapse.”
This loss of biodiversity seems to leave marine ecosystems as a whole more vulnerable to overfishing and less able to recover from its effects, Dr. Worm said. It results in an acceleration of environmental decay, and further loss of fish.
Dr. Worm said he analyzed the data for the first time on his laptop while he was overseeing a roomful of students taking an exam. What he saw, he said, was “just a smooth line going down.” And when he extrapolated the data into the future “to see where it ends at 100 percent collapse, you arrive at 2048.”
“The hair stood up on the back of my neck and I said, ‘This cannot be true,’ ” he recalled. He said he ran the data through his computer again, then did the calculations by hand. The results were the same.
“I don’t have a crystal ball and I don’t know what the future will bring, but this is a clear trend,” he said. “There is an end in sight, and it is within our lifetimes.”
Dr. Worm said a number of steps could help turn things around.
Even something as simple as reducing the number of unwanted fish caught in nets set for other species would help, he said. Marine reserves would also help, he said, as would “doing away with horrendous overfishing where everyone agrees it’s a bad thing; or if we banned destructive fishing in the most sensitive habitats.”

The FT also covered the news. The story highlighted the report's findings that fisheries could recover in three to five years in the best case scenario if restrictions were put in place. However, if overfishing continues unchecked, the possibilities for recovery are eliminated. The total area of current overfishing protections add up to less than 1 percent of the world's ocean surface.

The story mentions that the EU is holding a debate on the elimation of bottom trawling, a fishing practice involving heavy chains and nets that are dragged along the seabed, picking up everything in their path. The debate is coming ahead of a scheduled United Nations debate on global oceanic governance, which will also include the topic of bottom trawling.

MotherJones.com put up a round-up of fishery collapse issues after the NYT piece ran, including links to articles on overfishing and regulation, environmental degredation, and making educated seafood purchasing decisions.

Technorati Tags: marine biodiversity, seafood, species collapse, overfishing, fisheries