21st Century Regenerative Technology

1. States Take Up the Challenge of Energy Policy
2. Earth2Tech Week in Review
3. Riverwired.com: Reasons Why Anyone Can Go Solar

States Take Up the Challenge of Energy Policy

2008-07-12 22:00

Craig Rubens - Policy

Since the federal government has yet to renew tax incentives for renewable energy, the states have been stepping up their efforts to ensure continued growth for their green energy economies. Most recently, Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell signed an energy bill that will dole out $650 million in loans, grants and incentives for renewable energy projects in the Keystone State.

Here’s a round up of three recently signed state-level energy bills and one veto:

Pennsylvania: The bulk of $650 million is slated to go into renewable energy projects in the form of loans and tax incentives. One provision stipulates $40 million be put into the Ben Franklin Technology Development Authority, a sort of state run venture firm. The $40 million will be used on early stage startups and function as an incubator.

Massachusetts: Governor Deval Patrick signed the Green Communities Act last week which makes a number of reforms to make financing and developing clean energy in the Bay State easier. The bill included a big push to improve energy efficiency and mandates that utilities implement all energy efficiency improvements that cost less than power generation. The law also requires utilities to enter into 10 or 15-year contracts with renewable energy providers, making it easier for developers to plan long term. The bill made reforms to allow utilities to own solar panels on customers’ roofs and greenlights net-metering so residents can sell power back to the grid.

Florida: The sunshine state’s governor Charlie Crist signed HB 7135 at the end of June. Amid the ongoing biofuel debate, the bill sets a renewable fuel standard requiring all gasoline contain 10 percent ethanol by 2010. The bill also extended instate tax credits and created the Florida Energy and Climate Commission which will coordinate future energy and climate policy. Unfortunately, legislators did block one major element of Crist’s proposed energy plan, improved auto efficiency standards, due to heavy industry pressure.

Rhode Island: Governor Don Carcieri exercised his executive privilege and vetoed legislation that would have required utilities to purchase renewable energy on 10 year contracts, similar to Massachusetts’ newly minted law. The bill had proposed that National Grid, the state’s largest utility, would buy enough renewable energy to power 9 percent of Rhode Island by 2013 and the government would reimburse National Grid for 3 percent of power. Carcieri vetoed saying it would cost customers.

Top

Earth2Tech Week in Review

2008-07-12 20:05

Craig Rubens - Misc

It felt like an old episode of Dallas this week at the Earth2Tech offices with Texas oil baron T. Boone Pickens stealing all the headlines with the launch of his “Pickens Plan.” In case Mr. Pickens and his media blitz made you miss some of the other clean tech news this week we’ve gathered it all here for you.

T. Boone Launches "Pickens Plan" to Save U.S.: Pickens says his plan is “simple:” take all the natural gas we use to generate some 22 percent of our electricity, use it to power cars instead of foreign oil and then use wind power to fill the gap in our electricity generation. Oh, and he thinks Bush was “too focused on ethanol.“

10 Things You Should Know About Natural Gas Vehicles: Before you get too excited and the Pickens Plan, what does a fleet of cars running on natural gas even mean? Here’s what you need to do.

Innovalight Nabs $5M for Thin-Film Solar: Thin-film solar got one step closer to production this week when thin film startup Innovalight got $5 million in equipment lease financing.

Intel Antes Up On Solar with German Thin-Film Solar Sulfurcell: Intel already spun out it’s own solar startup, SpectraWatt, and now they’ve put $37.5 million into a separate thin-film startup, SulfurCell, upping Intel’s bet on solar technology.

Next-Gen Prius to Get Solar Panels: While the panels won’t really be able to fully charge the car, it will make smug Prius drivers even more smug. Kyocera will provide the panels that will be able to power the 5-kilowatt AC system.

Top

Riverwired.com: Reasons Why Anyone Can Go Solar

2008-06-13 04:00

jchait - earth-friendly homes

One of my favorite books, The Solar Living Sourcebook, notes that too often people sort of whine about locating the perfect plot of land for a solar powered home, when really solar can work for every location, just to varying degrees.

They make a good point.

Obviously, there's more sun on a mountain in New Mexico then in a valley in Northern Oregon. However, there's still sun everywhere, and if you have sun, you have solar potential. Basically any amount of solar power your home can use is a good deal for the environment. Any amount you can use is just that much less used from non-renewable sources, and that much money saved.

The Solar Living Sourcebook notes the following ideas:

Anyone can utilize solar power to a degree. You have to use what you have, make the most of what's available, and use super smart before building planning.
Work with nature, not against it.
You don't have to accomplish great strides all at once. Simply working hard to reduce your dependency on your heater and AC is a good start. Learning to use less is a key point. Sure your plot may not produce enough solar power to have your electricity running 24/7, but should it? No one needs their lights or TV on all day.

Learn more about solar power: