As passionate as his father was about civil rights, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is equally so about the environment.

Robert Kennedy Jr.

In a lecture in Fort Worth on Wednesday, the 56-year-old son of the late Senator, advocated for moving the nation to green energy, which he doesn’t see as encompassing nuclear power.

Coal is not the only power-producing industry that needs scrubbing, said the longtime environmentalist, nuclear energy is simply not safe. “Nuclear energy is the most catastrophic form of energy. No bank will finance it…[and] no insurance company will insure it,” he said.

“It’s not just a bunch of hippies saying it’s unsafe. There are spills all the time into the Hudson,” says Kennedy, who serves as chief prosecuting attorney for Riverkeeper, whose mission is the restoration of the Hudson River. Three Mile Island was not the last accident despite what nuclear advocates say.

He made it clear that lobbyists for fossil fuel and polluting energy industries are powerful and dangerous. The nuclear industry, for example, managed to find a way to get a Congressional exemption that leaves them free from damage. “All homeowners’ policies in the U.S. exclude radiation from the nuclear industry,” he said.

Kennedy believes greed has taken over the utility companies as well. “Utility companies make money by selling more energy – even if the energy is green. We need to change the rules,” he says. “Don’t reward bad behavior.”

He believes it’s a question of loyalty. “Instead of being loyal to their shareholders, company leaders need to be loyal to our nation,” he says.

Along with serving on the boards of green energy companies, Kennedy, a resident of Mount Kisco, N.Y., has led the efforts to protect New York City’s water supply, both through Riverkeeper and as a senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council. He is the president of Waterkeeper Alliance and a professor and supervising attorney at Pace University School of Law’s Environmental Litigation clinic. (After getting his undergraduate degree from Harvard and law degree from the University of Virginia, he picked up a masters in environmental law from Pace.)

As a partner with Silicon Valley’s VantagePoint Ventures, he is involved firsthand with green energy. VantagePoint funds an array of emerging clean tech and green energy companies., including solar, algae fuel and energy conservation businesses.

During his lecture at Texas Christian University, Kennedy also addressed the coal industry’s claims that coal is clean and cheap. It is neither, he says.

The problem is that once a coal plant is built, there are many hidden costs such as pollution and healthcare.

“More than 60,000 Americans are killed each year due to ozone particulate pollution,” he says. In addition, every fish in the United States is affected by dangerous levels of mercury, thanks to the coal industry. That mercury level also has grown in humans. Babies being born to women with high mercury levels have a higher percentage of illness ranging from autism to mental retardation.

On the other hand, “Once a solar plant is built, the energy is free forever.” There are no pollution and health costs, and no strings attached, he said.

Using coal to produce electricity is a destructive business from the beginning of the process, says Kennedy, who opposes the mountain-top removal mining in Appalachia in which ancient mountains are sheared off to get to the coal. The practice destroys forests and the resulting debris pollutes area rivers. (Coal companies say they ameliorate the damage by planting new trees, but environmentalists say these saplings cannot replace the mature forests; that erosion, runoff and river pollution are not abated.)

Kennedy recalled his father being against what was then known as strip-mining. “He told me, [the coal industry] is not just destroying the environment, but permanently impoverishing the surrounding communities. They’re doing this so they can break the unions.”

It’s particularly a shame because Appalachia, Kennedy points out, “is the oldest ecosystem on the continent.”

“Today,” he says, “ninety-nine percent of coal in West Virginia is owned by Wall Street bankers such as JP Morgan and Chase.” The reason? Many of the homeowners were tricked into selling their mineral rights because they didn’t know any better. “The coal industry has liquidated the people of West Virginia of their cash,” he says.

Kennedy says he’s not just fighting for ecosystems and halting the destruction of the environment. “It’s about the subversion of American democracy, the public process and transparency in government.

“Government is supposed to protect us,” but because of the influence polluting companies and lobbyists wield in Washington, that’s not happening.

Interestingly enough, he says, “every nation that has attempted ‘de-carbonization’, has prospered afterward. In Iceland, they became scared of global warming and within 15 years, went from being the poorest nation in Europe to the fourth richest. Sweden is another example. After Sweden de-carbonized and closed their nuclear facilities, they prospered. Tons of entrepreneurs came in as clean energy was introduced.”

He named Brazil and Costa Rica as having robust economies after they de-carbonized as well.

Robert Kennedy Jr. speaks at TCU.

Kennedy would like to see an increase in geothermal power, which he uses at his home in New York. “Geothermal,” he says, “is an underutilized resource. It’s been unexploited until now, but it could be a boon, especially in Texas where you already have holes in the ground from gas/oil drilling.” His home also has solar panels and between the two forms of energy, his home generates more power than he can use, which he then sells back to the utility company. “But you can’t do this in all states. This needs to be fixed. We need to reward efficiency; and punish inefficiency. We should be able to turn every home into a power plant.”

Another resource he’d like to see used more is wind. “There’s enough wind in the states of North Dakota, Minnesota and Texas to power the entire country,” he says.

The Obama Administration faces some major obstacles, Kennedy says. “We need to get rid of the subsidies that give breaks to dirty energy. And we have to build an electric grid that can accommodate the entire country.”

Kennedy compares the effort to the interstate highway system that was built during the Eisenhower years. The United States has the technology, Kennedy says. “And we have the resources – wind that blows at night; and sun that shines by day…We can put PVCs on every south-facing roof in the country.” Taking advantage of these green energies should be a no-brainer.

The TCU lecture was part of the Frost Foundation Lectureship for Global Issues, sponsored by the TCU Center for International Studies.

Copyright © 2010 Green Right Now | Distributed by GRN Network

The Texas Workforce Commission (TWC) and the Environmental Defense Fund, with the support of The Meadows Foundation have developed the Texas Green Jobs Guidebook.

The project highlights that in an emerging green energy economy, green means dollars. There are more than 200 green jobs listed in the guidebook, as well as specific training and education opportunities across Texas, and the list is expected to grow. Green is not a short term trend, but a fundamental shift in political, corporate, and personal decision making, according to those advocating for green jobs.

In Texas, $6 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 set aside for energy and weatherization programs is expected to fuel the green  job market. New bills awaiting review in Congress, such as the existing Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act, pending in the U.S. Senate, could further that job growth.

“Texas is the energy capital of America,” said Kate Robertson, author of the Texas Green Jobs Guidebook and an energy efficiency specialist for the Environmental Defense Fund. When most people think of energy opportunities in Texas they think of oil, but that is rapidly changing.  Texas is the number one producer of wind energy in the country, providing opportunities all around the state, especially in West Texas where most wind farms are located. In Austin, solar energy is a fast-growing jobs sector.

From green construction to energy conservation, the green job market is vast, and the jobs listed in the guidebook reflect that, encompassing these areas:

• Clean Energy
• Solar Power
• Wind Power
• Geothermal Power
• Biogas
• Biomass
• Hydrogen Power
• Hydroelectric Power
• Green Building
• Transportation
• Waste Management
• Water Resources
• Conservation and Planning
• Environmental Research and Monitoring
• Advocacy

Also, while many green jobs are relatively new, they typically have strong local ties and cannot be outsourced overseas, providing some job security.

Copyright © 2010 Green Right Now | Distributed by GRN Network

While Washington leaders debate whether the stimulus money has done enough for the economy, Wisconsin has latched onto money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to kick start a wind turbine blade manufacturing plant in Wisconsin Rapids, a small city in the center of the state. The new factory is expected to be the most advanced in North America and employ more than 600 people.

The Energy Composites Corp. (ECC) facility will be built with the help of $238 million in municipal tax-free bonds from a pool of money (the state’s Recovery Zone Facility pool) created with federal stimulus dollars.

While the financial arrangements took several steps, including new legislation introduced by Sen. Julie Lass, D-Stevens Point, and supported by several other state legislators — the desired outcome is a straightforward effort by the state to capture manufacturing for the fast growing commercial wind energy sector.

“Tax-free bonds are a critical component of our financing plan for the 535,000 square foot plant,” noted Sam Fairchild, Energy Composites’ CEO, in a statement. “Development costs for our new factory are too large for traditional Industrial Development financing programs, and the Recovery Zone Bond program, which expires at the end of 2010, is precisely the right solution at precisely the right time.

“Senator Lassa recognized how critical tax-free financing is to our business model, and she moved with great agility and grace to ensure that we are eligible for this Federal program within a time frame that allows us to site the project in Wisconsin Rapids. For her diligence, foresight and confidence, we are most grateful.”

The 535,000 s.f. plant will be capable of making wind blades 65 meters in length that can supply both onshore and offshore wind farms, and will be build with “a maximum range of flexibility in production design” to be able to accomodate technological advances. The facility will partner with Mid-state Technical College, where prospective employees can get training in blade fabrication.

ECC’s founder and president Jamie Mancl, called the jobs that will be created “non-exportable” and thanked everyone involved from Lassa to Wisconsin Rapids Mayor Mary Jo Carson and many others for working beyond expectations to pave the way for the innovative project.

Fairchild said he expects the new plant to be in full production in the first quarter of 2011, in time to fill increasing demand for wind turbine blades.

Specifically, the company hopes to be a supplier for offshore wind operations in the Great Lakes region, said Adrian Williams, head of ECC’s WindFiber(TM) Division.  “…We believe that we will be in the right place at the right time.”

ECC already operates an automated 73,000 s.f. manufacturing facility in Wisconsin Rapids, WI, that creates “advanced composite materials” for a variety of clean-tech applications that touch on several industries, from wind to power plant operations. According to a corporate release, the company designs and engineers: wind energy system components, flue gas desulfurization for power plants, infrastructure for bio-fuel storage and processing, infrastructure for managing waste water and drinking water storage, advanced municipal utilities infrastructure, and caustic material storage and handling systems for the petrochemical, mining and the pulp and paper industries.

Image: cleanenergyweek.org

Legislators wrestling with health care reform, job concerns and a spiraling federal deficit have another group vying for their attention in Washington this week.  Thanks to a hastily thrown-together coalition, it’s Clean Energy Week, with environmental activists and business leaders descending on Capitol Hill to press for money for more and better green initiatives.

An unlikely catalyst for that change: The jobs bill, which many hope will include more green items than normal. As the week began, the Senate was considering a proposal to deploy $11 billion of the potential jobs bill for efficiency measures. Creation of a Clean Energy Deployment Administration (CEDA) and a Green Bank also were part of the discussion.

Reed Hundt, co-chairman of the Coalition for the Green Bank, says the clean energy movement has been presented with a rare opportunity, however strange the bedfellows in some cases may be.

“We never expected, six months ago, that we’d be talking about the jobs bill as the bus we’d be getting on right now,” he said. “And in no way does it mean that we don’t need comprehensive energy legislation.

“It just means that if we can get a couple of passengers on the bus right now, let’s do it, because if we do get these expenditures and these lending authorities created, they will further demonstrate the relative ease of implementing all these other measures.”

With unemployment still hovering at about 10 percent nationally, environmental groups are touting the link between good, sustainable policy and good business. Hundt estimates that $2 billion in low-cost loans to utilities and other potentially green operations could stimulate up to $40 billion in total spending. That, in turn, could create up to 400,000 new jobs, he said.

More than 100 organizations and groups have banded together for Clean Energy Week, the brainchild of American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE) President Michael  Eckhart and Jeff Anderson, co-founder and executive director of Clean Economy Network. When the two met for breakfast about three weeks ago, they noted that the Renewable Energy Technology Conference (RETECH), expected to attract more then 2,500 attendees, already was scheduled for Washington this week. That, plus budget discussions on Capitol Hill, created a perfect opportunity, as Eckhart put it, to “create a bit of noise” about clean energy.

“The purpose of Clean Energy Week is to get center stage with the Congress among the three, four, five, six major agendas our government has before it today,” he said. “It’s time to make decisions about these policies, to put these policies in place in order to put the nation in motion.

“It’s not just for us and our agenda. This is good for the country.”

The group, which planned 15 related events for the week, stated three major objectives:

• Engage Congress and the Administration to take action now.
• Educate industry and government on the practical applications for clean energy that are economically viable and will create jobs.
• Seek to encourage greater investment in clean energy and energy efficiency technology.

In addition to mobilizing environmental groups, Clean Energy Week organizers also have enlisted the business community. About 120 CEOs from across the country will stage a “fly-in lobby day” to knock on the doors of their respective representatives.

“With so many national imperatives competing, we believe the drumbeat for passage of clean energy policy must be strong, it must be consistent, and it must come from every corner of the United States,” said Kateri Callahan, President of the Alliance to Save Energy.

Copyright © 2010 Green Right Now | Distributed by GRN Network

Turbines spin on the Texas Panhandle (Photo: Sandia National Laboratories)

The 9,922 new megawatts (MW) installed in the U.S. last year expanded the nation’s wind plant fleet by 39 percent and brought the total wind power generating capacity in the U.S to over 35,000 MW, according to the American Wind Energy Association. U.S. wind projects now generate enough to power the equivalent of 9.7 million homes.

America’s wind power industry will avoid an estimated 62 million tons of carbon dioxide annually, equivalent to taking 10.5 million cars off the road, and will conserve approximately 20 billion gallons of water annually, which would otherwise be consumed for steam or cooling in conventional power plants.

Based on AWEA data, you can only conclude that Texas blows. A lot. The state dwarfs all others with 9,410 of installed wind power. But in 2009, Washington pulled ahead of Minnesota in the ranking of the top five states by wind power installed (in MW):

1. Texas — 9,410
2. Iowa — 3,670
3. California — 2,794
4. Washington — 1,980
5. Minnesota — 1,809

Source: American Wind Energy Association

Kohl’s Department Stores has moved into second place among Fortune 500 companies for green power purchasing as recognized by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the company announced today.

A Kohl's store in Laguna Niguel, Calif., features solar panels and has received the Energy Star certification

The Wisconsin-based retail chain retains its No. 1 ranking among retailers, buying 1,367,376,000 kWh of power annually from biogas, biomass, small hydropower, solar and wind installations.

The other top retailers, after Kohl’s, on the EPA’s Top 20 Retail Green Power Purchasers are: Whole Foods Markets, Walmart Stores (in Texas and California), Starbucks, Staples, Lowe’s  and Safeway Inc.

The list of Fortune 500 Green Power Purchasers includes No.1 ranked Intel Corporation, followed by Kohl’s, PepsiCo, Whole Foods Market, Dell Inc. and The Pepsi Bottling Group.

Kohl’s now gets 100 percent of its power from green sources, as do the other corporations topping these lists, with some businesses listed as using 100+ percent power from renewable sources, meaning their power generation exceeds their needs and can be sold back through the grid.

The power sources factored into the formula for designating the EPA’s green power partners includes buying Renewable Energy Credits, which are green power equivalency units that can be paid to a utility that is unable to provide all of a companies needs with direct connection to renewable sources.

Kohl’s can now claim it is 100 percent powered by green energy.

“We recognize the importance of encouraging environmentally smart energy practices, and we aim to set a positive example in how we operate our buildings and run our business. Starting 2010 at 100 percent green power helps reduce our carbon footprint and brings us another step closer to achieving our goal of reaching net zero greenhouse gas emissions by the end of this year,” said Kohl’s executive vice president of store planning and logistics Ken Bonning.

Kohl’s Department Stores’ green power purchase of 1,367,376,000 kWh is equivalent to avoiding the carbon dioxide emissions of nearly 188,000 passenger vehicles per year or the amount of electricity needed to power nearly 128,000 average American homes annually, according to the EPA.

“EPA’s Green Power Partners are raising the bar for clean, renewable energy use,” said EPA Assistant Administrator Gina McCarthy. “By using green power, Kohl’s Department Stores is doing its part to fight climate change and proving every day that sound environmental practices can also be economically sound.”

Kohl’s power purchases include:

• Waste Management/Landfill Gas: At Kohl’s stores built according to Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification, up to 35 percent of the store’s power is generated by landfill gas in partnership with Waste Management.

• Solar: As the largest retail host of solar power in North America, Kohl’s generates solar power on-site at nearly 80 locations in six states. Solar power generates 20 to 50 percent of these store’s energy needs, depending on the location. The company’s largest system at its San Bernardino, Calif. distribution center has 6,208 panels and generates one megawatt of power – enough to power 400 homes on an annual basis. Kohl’s Milwaukee-based photo studio is  partly powered by 800 solar panels on its rooftop.

• Wind: Kohl’s actively supports wind farm projects in Texas, and North Dakota and South Dakota by purchasing 100 mWh of renewable wind power annually.

Kohl’s details other green initiatives on its website. The retailer has been a member of EPA’s Green Power Partnership since 2006.

Who says America can’t take the lead in wind power? Not General Electric. The global corporation based in Schenectady, N.Y., announced today that it has signed contracts to supply 88 wind turbines to HECIC New Energy Co., Ltd., a leading wind energy developer in China.

The turbines are destined for three new projects in the Hebei and Shanxi Provinces in China, which is the world’s 4th largest producer of wind power (after Germany, the U.S. and Spain).

The American Wind Energy Association has predicted that China’s wind power capacity will soon overtake European nations that have built strong wind components into their energy infrastructure. This surge in Chinese wind power will help reduce the nation’s reliance on coal-fired electricity plants and also bolster sales of wind components from around the world. In addition to the United States, Japan and European nations are positioned to help supply China’s needs, according to the AWEA.

China plans to add 150 gigawatts of installed wind power capacity by 2020, which will require it to add about 11.5 gigawatts of installed wind power every year, GE reported.

U.S. based GE, a global leader in power generation technologies, has already committed to supplying China with 896 1.5 MW wind turbines.

The GE 1.5 Megawatt Turbine was the most commonly installed land wind tower in the U.S. in 2009, according to the AWEA. It is capable of powering some 400 “average” American homes.

GE reports that more than 12,000 of these machines have been installed for projects around the world.

The company also noted that it is well-positioned to serve China’s growing wind industry, having been in business in that country for more than a century. GE runs 36 wholly owned or joint venture companies in China that include manufacturing, service, research and development and financial services operations, with a total workforce of over 13,000.

“The development of wind power is a key economic growth area for China and plays a critical role in achieving our national target to increase to 150 gigawatts of installed wind energy capacity by 2020,” said Dr. Cao Xin, General Manager of HECIC New Energy Co., Ltd., in the news release. “As a corporate citizen of China, our strategy is to apply the most advanced and reliable technology and technological expertise for every project that will help China reach its goal of achieving clean energy.”

To read more about wind power, see this fact sheet, called Wind Basics, put out by the AWEA in 2009.

The clock has just struck midnight on New Year’s Eve, 2020, and your rooftop cocktail party is in full swing. An urban garden, with potted evergreens and fruit trees, carpets the top of your downtown apartment building. The structure itself is vintage – a 1960’s brownstone that’s been retrofitted, by city-wide mandate. It operates on the new multi-source national electrical grid, which is supplied by wind, solar, geothermal power, as well as fossil fuels whose emissions are trapped underground.

Rooftop Garden (Photo: Adpower99/Dreamstime.)

In your apartment, appliances and plumbing fixtures are energy- and water-efficient – something you were able to afford with the help of government incentives that started in 2010.

As the New Year turns, friends sip mojitos with mint freshly cut from your herb garden, nibbling locally made goat cheese, accented by your own roof-grown tomatoes and cukes. A rainwater-collection system irrigates your vegetable garden, and the rooftop’s community compost fertilizes it. Solar-heated water percolates through your plumbing, and a mobile rooftop solar system heats and cools your home. Several stories below, in the building’s underground parking lot, the family car is getting its nightly re-charge.

It’s a smart, self-contained life, one that consumes no more than it requires, and produces some of its own food and energy on-site. And believe it or not, you are paying less for utilities, transportation – for life, in general – than you did a decade ago. That’s because U.S. policy-makers and legislators pushed so hard ten years before to put the country on an aggressive path toward a sustainable, renewable-energy future.

Imagine if they hadn’t pushed through the Energy and Power Bill in 2010, or the emissions Cap and Trade plan or later, the Carbon Tax bill… Imagine if progressive, quickly instituted policies and incentives hadn’t reassured manufacturers and factory owners that it was a good idea to retool and hire and train all those “green-economy” workers. …

This is the future we could see, the best case scenario we might see, if the White House and U.S. Congress and the rest of us act aggressively – now – to grow a green economy and reduce carbon emissions.

Is it Possible?

Most conservative think-tanks and government agencies foresee a longer-term conversion to green energy. According to one DOE report, the fastest we could move would be to attain 20 percent wind by 2030, while still relying on fossil fuels for up to 78 percent of  our overall power as late as 2035.

There are quicker conversion scenarios offered by groups ranging from the Union of Concerned Scientists to the American Wind Energy Association , from the Worldwatch Institute and the Renewable Energy and a Energy Efficiency Partnership (REEEP) to former Vice President Al Gore’s Alliance for Climate Protection/Repower America plan.

The latter suggests the U.S. could be at 100 percent renewable in 10 years,  but that roadmap doesn’t give a breakdown on which types of energy would provide what percentage of our overall electricity needs.And Gore’s and similar plans have been criticized as requiring the economy to travel at a warp speed not possible on this planet. They’ve also been challenged as risky, because they’d be based totally on today’s technologies, when solar and geothermal and biofuels are rapidly improving and coming down in price. Of course this could help us get there more quickly, but it also warns against locking in commitments.

In fact, if there’s one thing all parties agree upon, it’s that there is no single, truly reliable breakdown for a ten-year scenario that predicts specifics for how the energy pie would be divided in 10 years; 20 percent solar? 30 percent wind? 40 percent conventional fossil fuels like natural gas? Where does nuclear power fit?
No one has a crystal ball.

According to Mark Z. Jacobson, a Stanford University civil engineering professor and co-author of a recent report in Scientific American – “Evaluating the Feasibility of a Large Scale Wind, Water and Sun Energy Infrastructure” - in theory, the United States shouldn’t have a problem converting all “new production of electricity to renewable by 2020. The issue is, what’s ‘new’? It’s not going to be a high percent of the total. Each year you can replace a certain percent, but a (pre-existing) power plant can last 40 years.”

However, Jacobson adds,  ”It’s certainly feasible in ten years - if everybody put their minds to it – to say  all new power has to be renewable. We could be at 50 percent wind, 40 percent solar and 10 percent everything else, including geothermal, hydro-electric, even some tidal wave power.”

But converting our total energy production to renewables in 10 years is not a likely scenario, he says, because that would require the U.S. government to “take away all the subsidies from fossil fuels and shift them over to renewables” – unlikely, even with a progressive President and Congress.

“These coal plants that are grandfathered in, the way to make those go out of business is to change the subsidies, change the laws, but we’ll have a battle! Getting rid of the old stuff is easier said than done. We have all these people working in the industry and they are going to complain that we’re costing the country jobs, putting their companies out of business. And we’d need a job training program to shift them into other industries.”

But is it technically possible to have all new energy be renewable by 2020?

Yes,  says the professor, adding that we might already be at 25 percent renewable for new power now.

“Right now, wind is the second largest source of all new energy, after natural gas, and if we slowly get rid of the ‘old’ power, how fast that could occur depends on”  introducing things like new laws and incentives, aggressive policies that don’t change with each election, as well as shifting subsidies to green power interests and ridding the powers-that-be of outmoded mindsets.

Jacobson concludes:  ”The scenario of 100 percent conversion to renewables in 10 years is very slim. A 90 percent conversion – maybe a little less slim. … That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try. All forces should be aligned to do these things. But given there are so many confliciting interests – there are lobbyists, naysayers, competing financial interests, the economic cycles, the political cycles – so many potential roadblocks. … You can’t just shut down the existing plants and have new generation on-line in 10 years. You could imagine the law suits. The goal is there, but if you think about it as retiring existing things as they go down, there’s probably less of a fight on that front.”

And, as the civil engineer points out, ” electric power is not the only thing you’re trying to change. You’re trying to change the entire infrastructure, so you want to go down the path of least resistance. It’s better to get 25 percent across the board – for everything, for other sectors, and not just (go for) 100 percent for electric power. Those other sectors include industrial, transportation, energy efficiency” for our built-environment.

As for which type of renewable energy will create the largest chunk of power in America, no one can say. So let’s take a look at the three main ones  consistently mentioned by renewable-energy proponents. First up, wind power.

Depending on where you live, it can be a relatively painless process to switch to a greener power company, or virtually impossible.

New York City residents can switch, if they choose, and now a new environmental collaboration is making the process easier than ever.

Consumers can follow the guidance of a new website, launched Monday and created by the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Alliance for Clean Energy in New York.

“Three clicks and you can make the switch from fossil fuels to clean energy,” said Brandi Colander, attorney in the Air and Energy Program at NRDC. “This website gives New Yorkers a tool to lead the way in repowering America, starting with their own homes and small businesses.”

The website, GreenPowerNYC, allows residents and small busines owners to select the type of clean power they want to use and their energy provider. After simply filling out a form with their choices, they can make the switch to plans and providers that employ green energy, such as wind and hydro-generation.

The program,  made possible by a donation from the Wolfensohn Family Foundation, can help users lower their carbon footprint and support the economic development of alternative energy sources.

“This new project is exciting for energy providers, environmentalists and New York City residents alike,” said Carol Murphy Executive Director of ACE NY, in a statement.

Echoing that thought was Mel Jones, president and chief executive officer of Sterling Planet, one of the power providers: “With the launch of Green Power NYC, millions more New Yorkers can discover that clean, renewable energy is an easy, affordable option that’s good for the environment, good for the economy, and good for increased energy security and independence.”

Con Edison is also participating.

(HONOLULU) – Hawaii has found a new place in the sun. With a local in the White House and clean-energy tech booming, this sunny, windy island state is blossoming into an exotic garden of alternative-power innovation with nearly $1 billion in clean energy projects underway. The aggressive  initiatives are driven by history and necessity.

Wind turbines on Hawaii Island (Photo: Hawaiian Electric Light Co.)

Necessity, because Hawaii gets 90 percent of its energy from imported oil, while its isolation makes it vulnerable to frequent power outages (no neighbors to send in reserves – until wave power is tapped). Not-so-distant history, because native Hawaiian culture is rooted in respect for nature, a vibe that resonates “take no more than is needed and squander nothing that is taken”.

Currently, islanders pay 25 to 55 cents, per kilowatt hour for electricity – three to five times the national average. Gas prices are the highest in the country.

As solar-tech pioneer and Honolulu-based Sopogy founder Darren Kimura puts it, “We only have about 5 to 7 days worth of energy stored here. And if we were cut off, we’d be stuck. Tourists would be stranded, transportation would stop, food would run out. … We have a very small grid here, and power outages aren’t uncommon.”

Kimura, who just won the Blue Planet Foundation’s Honua (meaning “Earth”) Award for Clean Energy, illustrates his point with a lighter note: “Last year in December, President Obama was out here on vacation, and we had a minor incident and lost power to the entire island. Talk about being at center stage and the lights going off. The President’s visiting and at the house where he’s staying, the power goes out. … The unfortunate reality was (driven home) – how fragile the energy grid is here.”

Fortunately, America’s 44th Commander-in-Chief was born and partly raised in Honolulu; he’s probably used to the outages. Kimura guesses it didn’t freak him out too badly.

But there’s been plenty for Hawaiians to ballyhoo in the news lately, besides ‘ownership’ of a President: In January 2008, during her State of the State address, Gov. Linda Lingle told constituents she would make energy a priority. Within a few days, Honolulu had signed the historic Clean Energy Initiative with the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE), whereby America’s 50th state would shift from a fossil-fuel driven economy to one that buzzed with power from wind, sun, water (and biofuel and geothermal tech and hydrogen fuel…) by 2030. Specifically, the plan calls for Hawaii to get 70 percent of of its power from clean energy – 40 percent from actual renewable power, 30 percent from energy efficiency and consumer conservation.

Since then, several other major policy changes have occurred.

• Last year, the state passed a law requiring all new homes to have solar-heated water. Jeff Mikulina, executive director of Hawaii’s influential Blue Planet Foundation (started by Blue Planet Software founder Henk Rogers) does the energy math: “We’re building about 5,000 homes a year in Hawaii, and most experts say the measure will save four or five barrels of oil, per household per year,” Mikulina says. So…that’s 20,000 to 25,000 barrels per year that we won’t consume.”

• In December 2008, California-based Better Place, an alt-energy outfit, announced it would use Hawaii as a test site in setting up an infrastructure for electric cars (Israel, Denmark, Australia and California are other test sites). The plan, agreed to by Hawaii’s utility service, calls for Better Place to build 50,000 to 100,000 recharging and battery-swap stations by 2012; they will be run using renewable energy purchased from the local utility. Various electric-car manufacturers have expressed interest in the plan, and recently Hawaii’s governor signed a law requiring large parking lots to provide additional space for electric cars by 2011. The state hopes to see 10,000 electric cars on the road by 2014. Experts say Hawaii is an ideal place for them, because travel distances aren’t very far (usually less than 100 miles). It’s a series of islands – eight in all, thank you.

• And most recently, Mikulina – whose name is familiar to many eco-advocates because of his long career with first the Sierra Club’s Hawaii Chapter and now with Blue Planet – points to the Feed-In Tariff, announced by the state’s Public Utilities Commission on Sept. 25th that levels the price-point playing field for alt-energy providers, knocking down hurdles for clean-energy development. (Essentially a feed-in tariff sets a price that utilities must pay to renewable energy providers, removing uncertainties in the market that hinder development.)

So, the groundwork for a clean-energy conversion has be laid, and the sky literally is the limit.

Hawaii Island gets about 30 percent of its power from geothermal (Photo: John Lund, Geothermal Heat Center)

With its sun, wind and surf, Hawaii is ideally positioned for such a sea change. Here, solar energy is a given, wind power a duh, and wave-power possibly just a Hang-Ten away. Not to mention the geo-thermal power contained in all that volcanic activity. In fact, with policy wonks, techno geeks and eco-interests all looking toward the same goal, the Aloha State is poised to become a global force in sustainability, exporting know-how and technology instead of importing fuel and food.

Blue Planet Foundation’s Mikulina and Rogers believe Hawaii can be energy-independent within a decade.

But what, more specifically, makes Hawaii a mecca for alt-fuel seekers while simultaneously making it vulnerable to fossil-fuel peddlers?

“First of all, there’s the geographic isolation of the island,” says Kimura. “We’re one of the most, if not the most, isolated locations in the world. We’re literally in the middle of the Pacific Ocean – 2,500 miles from LA and 4,000 miles from Asia in general… It’s not like it’s convenient to get here (ditto for imported foods and fuels). … We import I’d say 50 to 60 percent of our food, and as a result of that – and importing oil – we export $7 billion of our capital. We spend $7 billion annually for that energy. When you take all of those factors together, the fact is that we have no economic security, and Hawaii needs to move toward an oil-independent, clean energy/fossil-free future. … Also, take into account that the economy here is largely tourist based, and the cost of living is almost two times higher than in  just about every major city in the United States.”

The flip-side, Kimura says, looks better.  “I see two opportunities here. First of all, the opportunity for us to be self-sustaining. We have some of the best wind, some of the best solar, some of the best access to the ocean and to waste-biomass because of our agriculture industry. … All these are natural resources that could be converted into power, or even just fuel for our cars, like biodiesel. I think that’s step one — becoming energy efficient. Step two is exporting our knowledge and our technology. … It might not be mission-critical for others today, but it will be. These problems are magnified in Hawaii, but they become a reality within ten years in other parts of the world. That second point could become a key economic driver for Hawaii.”

All across O’ahu are impressive indicators for the future.

Hickam Air Force Base has a hydrogen fueling station where many of its vehicles – electric-drive vehicles, be they fuel-cell or internal-combustion that burn hydrogen – can fill ‘er up. That was built about three years ago. Now the station is powered by 146 kilowatts of solar power – enough to energize about 30 homes. The 180-watt panels were manufactured and installed by Honolulu based Sunetric. The hydrogen plant itself was a joint venture between the state of Hawaii and the United States Air Force.

Nearer to Waikiki, the historic Punahou School, where President Barack Obama graduated high school, class of ‘79, has green shoots sprouting every which way. The circa-1841 campus is home to one of the most aggressive pushes toward sustainability of any school in the nation. Across 76 acres, 44 school buildings are spread, many with solar panels and other signs of sustainability. But since 2004, Punahou has taken greenness to a whole new level, with the opening of the LEED Gold Case Middle School in 2004-2005, and, now with construction underway on the uber-clean Omidyar K-1 Neighborhood and Tennis Complex, which Punahou hopes will receive LEED Platinum upon its completion in 2010-2011.

In 2006, Punahou’s Case Middle School was named “Greenest School in America” by the GreenGuide. It features waterless urinals, photovoltaic arrays, as well as curricula and field-trips that focus on all elements of sustainability, from eating local food to being socially responsible and community driven, to being environmentally active. Oh, and the vending machines don’t have candy.

Over at Sopogy, the company is, to use surfer lingo, throwin’ some serious heat.

Sopogy's Solar Nova Concentrator (Photo: Sopogy)

Founded by Kimura in 2002 (one of several clean-energy/eco-friendly companies he’s pioneered over the past 17 years), Sopogy introduced a new product yesterday at the Solar Power International Conference and Expo in Anaheim, Calif. – the first commercially available rooftop Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) collector – called the SopoFlare. CSP’s have previously been designed for deserts, or spread across acres and large fields.

“These are about 30 percent cheaper than traditional solar collectors. And the cool thing is that when we launched the product, we had so many hits on our website that it went down. It’s back up now. But people were freaking out!” Kimura said.

But that’s only the beginning, local entrepreneurs say. A number of new projects are coming online – have actually been announced – that amount to almost a billion dollars worth of clean-energy projects in Hawaii. They span the universe of clean energy, from activated carbon to burning sugarcane to create power, to biodiesel projects to Sopogy’s own steam-energy advances, which use mirrors to intensify the energy of the sun, creating steam and then collecting it.

The Roscoe, Texas, project became the world's largest wind farm.

By Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now

The US wind industry will finish 2009 ahead of projections for wind installations, though the numbers will still fall behind the industry’s record-breaking year in 2008.

“It’s not a bad year given the financial crisis,” said Liz Salerno, director of industry data and analysis at the American Wind Energy Association, in a news conference this week.

The US is expected to have installed about 7,000 new megawatts of wind energy in 2009, falling short of  the 8,500 megawatts of 2008, but ahead of analysts’ predictions for the year and ahead of 2007’s installations.

With 31,000 megawatts of wind power online, the US currently leads the world in wind energy development, ahead of China, which is fast developing wind power, and traditional leader Germany.

The AWEA attributes the strong showing in 2009 to grant money provided by the US government, which allowed wind entrepreneurs and developers to show lenders they had seed money for projects. That helped companies secure credit, which was difficult in the wake of the financial fallout of late 2008, Salerno said.

“We know things were tough, and it was very difficult to get a deal done earlier in this year. But what we’re hearing from our wind community is that things are slowly being unlocked.”

Some private capital has helped fund projects as well, and utilities, which are able to access lower cost money, also continue to move into the wind market, she said.

Companies developing installations include large and small firms, including General Electric, Vestas, Siemens, Suzlon, Gamesa, Clipper, Mitsubishi, Acciona and Repower.

To keep wind aloft, advocates say a consistent and dependable national policy will be needed; keeping projects in the pipeline will require continued federal incentives, either as grants or production tax credits.

Click to enlarge

The AWEA also wants Congress to pass a strong Renewable Electricity Standard (RES), a measure that would require states to produce/obtain a certain percentage of their energy from renewable sources such as wind, solar or geothermal power.

A strong RES, combined with continued investment incentives, would send a signal to developers and the world that the US was committed to wind power and would buoy developers on the wind generation side, as well as the manufacturing sector related to wind, Salerno explained.

US wind parts manufacturers have experienced a slowdown with the 2009 global recession, she said.

“We can’t ignore the fact that we are competing with other countries for these manufacturing facilities and for these jobs…We have to step up and show that the US is a good place to do business compared to other countries.”

Congress also needs to invest in new transmission lines to get wind from outlying areas to population centers. Coupled with a strong RES, that would demonstrate the public commitment that the wind business has been seeking for years.

“Having a stable market in place,” she said, “will be the foundation for growing wind.”

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

Roof-mounted solar panels on Hall's Warehouse in South Plainfield New Jersey. (Photo: Business Wire)

By Melissa Segrest
Green Right Now

The latest generation of workers in clean technology jobs aren’t all engineers, tech experts and scientists. They aren’t all in Silicon Valley – some are from Detroit or Gary, Ind.

They may come from community colleges or be fresh out of high school.

Even with the aching economy, venture capital is flowing to clean technologies at a rate rivaling biotech and software investments. The Federal government is pushing for smarter, sustainable and alternative forms of power, transportation and energy efficiency.

Around the world – in Europe, India, Japan and, especially, China – clean technology is a growing job market.

Unlike the high-tech bubble in California, these industries are spread out. Along with the financial analysts and system designers, there are jobs for laborers with new skills – biofuel boiler operators, insulation workers for green buildings or solar energy system installers.

Those are some details from a recently released study of jobs in clean technology industries. Clean Edge, a research and publishing company focused on the clean-tech sector since 2000, looked for the first time at the various jobs associated with these fields, as well as the top areas in the country where the jobs are emerging.

“This is a dispersed revolution, not concentrated in one place, like Silicon Valley during the dot.com boom,” said Ron Pernick, an author of the report and co-founder/managing director of Clean Edge.  “It’s in dozens of nodes and places all over the globe. And it’s not just one type of profession, but with all levels of education” and a significant range of jobs.

Wind power has more than 400,000 direct and indirect jobs around the globe.

Clean energy jobs are growing faster than other job sectors, according to Pew research cited in the report. In the solar photo-voltaic field alone, there are more than 200,000 jobs (direct and indirect) worldwide. The wind power area, Clean Edge reports, has more than 400,000 direct and indirect jobs around the globe.

What is clean tech? Companies that in some way use or produce renewable materials and energy sources, reduce use of natural resources (or improve efficiency), and limit or stop pollution and toxic waste, the report said.

Among the 36 jobs sampled:

• A boiler operator in a biofuel/biomaterial company could receive (with some years of related experience) a median annual salary of $61,000 with either a high school or associate’s degree.
• A building maintenance engineer for a “green” building (also with mid-level experience) might be looking at a median pay level of $43,300, again with a high school or associate’s degree.
• At higher levels, in entry-level jobs that call for a bachelor’s degree, a solar energy system designer ‘s median pay is $42,600, while a smart-grid software engineer’s median  income is $65,500.

(The job/salary information was determined both by Clean Edge and PayScale, a compensation data publisher. A national median means that half of those doing each job are paid more than the median, and half are paid less.)

Even at entry level, a high school grad or someone with an associate’s degree would need to have some specialized training for the tech jobs. On Clean Edge’s job listings, “those energy efficiency jobs, and solar installation jobs, all of these jobs, at the end of the day, on the manufacturing side, on the installation jobs, they are technical jobs,” Pernick said.

While it is true the San Francisco/Oakland/San Jose metropolitan area is still number one in the study’s clean-tech job activity list Detroit/Ann Arbor, Mich. is 14^th on the list of 15.

“Detroit is a great example, and they’re having a difficult time as you know,” said Pernick. In Wixom, Mich., a former Ford plant closed in 2007 is a 320-acre facility that has been purchased by Xtreme Power (wind and solar power systems) and Clairvoyant Energy (solar panel manufacturing). They are planning to reopen the plant in 2011 and could potentially employ thousands, the report said.

In West Branch, Iowa, a hydraulic pump maker laid off 130 workers in 2003. Now wind turbines are being built by 130 employees there, and more hires are planned. In Newton, Iowa, an old Maytag plant for home appliances had laid off 1,800 people in 2007. Now, TPI Composites are making wind turbine blades there and have hired 325 people since 2008, the report says. They are aiming at 500 employees by 2020.

And it’s not just new companies on the clean-tech bandwagon: Big firms such as Siemens have 5,500 working in their wind-business division, and BP has more than 2,200 solar employees.

Of all the clean-tech businesses in the world, four are in the U.S., three are in China and three in the European Union, the report said.. The largest is Vestas Wind Systems in Denmark, with 21,100 employees.

Pressure for more efficient sources of industry coincides with large numbers of retiring employees. The result, according to Pernick, can be found in the example of California’s Pacific Gas & Electric. PG&E “is a company reinventing itself. . . . They need to build out their energy intelligence and clean energy integration because of other forces. But as they’re facing a huge shift in their existing labor pool, they are going to hire people trained in those new arenas.”

But will Americans who don’t like the idea of public funding for new ventures object to stimulus money for clean tech businesses?

“The government has a history of highly subsidized and deregulated energy sources. Coal, nuclear, oil – they’re all highly subsidy-dependent and regulatory dependent. Time has changed, they don’t create a lot of jobs in those industries (non-renewable), they are not providing energy independence,” Pernick said.

That said, Clean Edge’s report offers five models for publicly financing clean-tech jobs.  Some have interesting precedents in American history. The Green Bank (officially the Clean Energy Development Administration) proposal is moving through the U.S. House and Senate and receiving bipartisan support. The bank could fund lots of renewable energy, energy efficiency and pollution reducing businesses and leverage lots of private investment as well. In the 19^th century, the report says, the government supported private enterprise – the building out of America’s railroads.

Another blast from the past for clean tech support could be a form of “Victory Bonds,” similar to the War Bonds sold to support World War II efforts, the study said. The World Bank and a Scandinavian bank helped raise more than $350 million for “green bonds” in 2008.

Another public-financing idea is the production of more Federal bonds that offer bondholders a tax credit (to some extent) in lieu of interest payments. The report also speaks about Federal loan guarantees and city-administered loan funds — where homeowners could borrow money to be more energy efficient (solar energy cells on their roofs, for example), then repay the loans over a long time via property taxes or utility bills.

Clean-tech companies and financing options are spread across the country, so there will be competition. However, “there are so many players . . . you can try to put together a great package to attract a company (in New York, for example) and they just may end up in Texas or Colorado or Oregon. There’s no way to divine who’s going to get the deal.

“The good news is they (cities) have a chance to get it, and the bad is that there’s a lot of competition,” Pernick said.

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media