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Clean-tech jobs on the increase, and they’re not just for geeks and experts
[caption id="attachment_5941" align="alignright" width="263" caption="Roof-mounted solar panels on Hall's Warehouse in South Plainfield New Jersey. (Photo: Business Wire)"]  [/caption]
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.
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Tags: · Biofuels, Clean Edge, Clean Edge job report, Clean Edge report, clean tech, clean tech jobs media pay, clean technology, clean technology and Detroit, Green Bonds, green tax credits, median pay jobs, Pacific Gas & Electric, Renewable Energy, Ron Pernick, smart grids, Solar Power, The Green Bank, Wind Power
Thinking of going solar? The sweet spot is now
September 28th, 2009 · No Comments
By Bill Sullivan
Green Right Now
If you’ve ever thought about going solar to take a bite out of your utility bills, you may want to take another look: A perfect storm of events, policies and programs currently makes solar more affordable than ever.
The problem: He who hesitates may miss the best deals.
“People say, ‘It’s too [...]
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Tags: · how much solar panels cost, John Berger, off-grid, Photovoltaics, polysilicon, Renewable Energy, residential energy costs, solar panel costs, solar panel rebates, solar panels, Standard Renewable Energy of Houston
Windy arguments: AWEA faces down critics
September 18th, 2009 · No Comments
By Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now
We’re used to windy debates in Washington. Now the debates about wind have blown in gale force.
It’s been a while coming. At first, wind power seemed hard to argue against. It is emissions-free, technologically proven, shovel-ready, local and works well on the gusty plains of the US – with one key roadblock, there are some kinks to work out in getting it from there to here on the unprepared national grid system. The plan for many was straightforward: Fix the grid, keep building turbines, replace fossil-fuel dependent energy with renewal wind, and keep adding to an already robust wind sector job force of some 80,000.
[caption id="attachment_4901" align="alignleft" width="214" caption="Texas wind turbines (Photo: Texas State Energy Conservation Office.)"]  [/caption]
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Tags: · American Wind Energy Association, Denmark, Institute for Energy Research, Renewable Energy, US wind generation, wind debate, Wind Power
Counterintuitive Idea of the Week: EarthSure’s buried solar panels
September 15th, 2009 · 1 Comment
Green Right Now Reports
Looking to improve the cost efficiency and aesthetics of solar power, a New Jersey company, EarthSure, has decided that solar panels should be buried in the earth.
No they’re not trying to win the “renewal energy miscalculation” award, they have developed a way to funnel solar light to the buried panels, which would gather solar power from the transported light (like solar tubes). The new operation would be unseen, and would not require that rooftops be converted into glassy conversation pieces.
Homeowner’s associations listen up:
“No unsightly above-ground solar panels need to be used anymore. This is an enhancement not only in economics and in the green movement, but a great technological improvement in the area of design and construction as well,” the company reports in a news release.
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Tags: · EarthSure, Green Energy, N.J., Ray Saluccio, Renewable Energy, rooftop solar panels, Solar Power, SubSolar solar power systems, underground solar panels, Woodbridge
Waxman-Markey may or may not raise electricity bills, but not much, we think
By Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now
Talk about a hot and windy debate as Washington grapples with the first big bill to try to power up a new clean energy economy. Studies and accusations are whipping around like wind propellers as the contituencies of fossil fuels and new energy square off.
While this seems like a flurry of much ado — is it possible that the American Clean Energy and Security Act wouldn’t pass? That the fossils would win?
Still, there’s much at stake. As we know from last year’s blockbuster stimulus bill, no one really reads all the copy, so there could be a lot of caveats, crumbs and sneaky insertions embedded into the 1,000-plus page act, also known as the Waxman-Markey bill.
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Tags: · American Clean Energy and Security Act, BarbaraKesslerBlog, Pew Center on Global Climate Change, Renewable Energy, Solar Power, Waxman-Markey, Wind Power
Windpower wins public approval, poll shows
From Green Right Now Reports:
Public support for wind energy is strong and crosses party lines, according to a poll being released today by the American Wind Energy Association at the opening of WINDPOWER 2009, an industry conference being held this week in Chicago.
The poll shows that 75 percent of American voters support a Renewable Energy Standard (RES) that would require utilities to generate at least 25 percent of their electricity from renewable energy sources by 2025.
The support was bipartisan with 86 percent of Democrats favoring the RES, 62 percent of Republicans favoring it, and 71 percent of Independents.
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Tags: · Chicago American Wind Energy Association, Renewable Energy, windpower, WINDPOWER 2009
No math needed: A look at global warming by the numbers
By Laura Elizabeth May
Green Right Now
One
One degree Fahrenheit. On average, that’s how much the Earth’s temperature has increased over the past century, according to a report by the EPA. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has predicted that during the 21st century the global temperature will increase by 2-6° C.
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Tags: · 350, 350.org, Barack Obama, cap-and-trade, Congress, EU, global temperatures, hurricane katrina, James Hansen, Polar Bears, Renewable Energy, science, sea ice, The American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009, Waxman-Markey, Wind energy
Solar thermal turns up the heat in renewables market
By Catherine Girardeau
Green Right Now
Renewable energy companies are no doubt pleased that the proposed economic stimulus plan being considered by Congress could double the nation’s clean energy capacity — enough to power six million American homes.
The White House agenda calls for even more progress: The administration wants incentives to increase private sector spending in renewable energy; a cap-and-trade system that would make heavy industries like coal-burning power plants pay for carbon pollution and a declared goal that America reduce greenhouse gases 80 percent by 2050.
It’s shaping up to be a perfect storm for companies that can figure out how to generate renewable energy, including solar thermal companies which intend to compete with wind and direct solar as large-scale energy providers, despite the cool economy.
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Tags: · Ausra Inc., Brightsource Energy, California, David Mills, Nevada, Renewable Energy, solar thermal power
Jet biofuels take off; expert predicts public flights by 2012
By Julie Bonnin
Green Right Now
The first commercial air test flights using biofuels took to the sky earlier this month: First Air New Zealand, then Continental Airlines in Houston gave us a glimpse of a greener way to fly. Next up: Japanese Airline, JAL has announced a demonstration flight using a Boeing 747-300 powered by biofuel set for Jan. 30 in Tokyo.
 Jennifer Holmgren is General Manager of Renewable Energy & Chemicals for Honeywell’s UOP, a refining technology developer which partnered with Continental on its landmark project. One week later, she was a keynote speaker at Petrotech 2009, an international oil and gas conference hosted by the Indian government, on the topic of emerging technologies (the conference ends Thursday).
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Tags: · Air New Zealand, Biofuels, Continental Airlines, Honeywell, Japanese Airline, Renewable Energy
Green Hawaii, state will serve as clean energy testing ground
By Barbara Kessler
And the greenest state could soon be… No, not California. Not Washington, or Oregon, or Colorado.
It’s Hawaii!
Or at least it could be. Maybe. The islanders have plantation-sized plans for moving off fossil fuels and into clean energy. Their goal: Meet 70 percent of Hawaii’s energy needs with clean energy sources like solar and wind power by 2030. That’s a bigger reach than any other state have taken, or feels able to take.
Across the country, 24 states have set firm goals for adding renewable power to their energy portfolio. Another four states have non-binding goals for their Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS), as they’re called.
Most of these look to increase the amount of renewable energy to 10 to 30 percent of the total used by the state by 2015 or 2020.
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Tags: · biomass, Hawaii, Renewable Energy, Renewable Portfolio Standards, Solar Power, waves, Wind Power
Eco-Jobs on the Rise Around World
By Nima Kapadia
Jobs in renewable energy are increasing worldwide and causing the coal industry to distribute pink slips, according to a Worldwatch Institute study.
The report, written by Worldwatch senior researcher Michael Renner, estimates that 2.3 million people are working in renewable energy jobs – either directly or indirectly. From that number:
1 million work in biofuels
794,000 work [...]
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Tags: · coal, jobs, Renewable Energy, Worldwatch Institute
Nation’s Largest Net-Zero Energy, Residential Community Planned For Colorado
By Tom Kessler
Colorado developers have announced what they say is the country’s largest net-zero energy, master-planned community in Arvada, Colo., a suburb of Denver. Geos Neighborhood, which will begin infrastructure construction this fall, will feature 250 residences and can generate enough renewable energy to supply 100 percent of the annual energy needs of the entire [...]
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Tags: · Colorado, Geos Neighborhood, net-zero energy, Net-zero homes, Renewable Energy
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