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American Electric Power (AEP) is doubling its goal of adding 1,000 megawatts (MW) of renewable energy to 2,000 MW by the end of 2011. This would bring the company's total renewable energy portfolio to more than 2,600 MW by the end of 2011. AEP has added 903 MW of wind generation since 2007, when the company committed to its original goal of adding 1,000 MW. AEP also set a new energy efficiency goal in 2009 to reduce consumption by 2.25 million megawatt-hours by the end of 2012. "Continuing to diversify our fuel mix with more renewable resources will allow us to meet our customers' energy needs and reduce our carbon footprint," said Michael Morris, AEP's chairman, president and CEO. "We can support development of a lower-carbon energy future through a combination of increasing renewable energy; driving the development of a new, interstate extra-high voltage transmission system to bring that renewable energy to market; promoting energy efficiency; and further developing advanced coal technologies such as carbon capture and storage."

The American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) and the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) have released a white paper titled "Green Power Superhighways: Building a Path to America's Clean Energy Future," detailing current inadequacies of the U.S. electric transmission infrastructure and offering policy solutions to address them. Inadequate transmission capacity is a significant barrier to renewable energy development in the U.S. The release of the paper comes at a critical time. President Obama and Congress have made strong commitments to renewable energy as a driver for jobs creation and economic growth, but the nation's renewable energy resources can not reach their full potential without renewed investment in the country's transmission infrastructure.

Our Renewable Nation is possibly the most adorable project ever conceived to advocate renewable energy. It's an eco-video project helmed by the McCullough family, who are traveling across the country in a vegetable oil powered VW Beetle. They're visiting wind farms, solar installations, talking to companies developing sustainable technologies, and documenting all their interviews and travels on video. Each of the videos stars 9-year old Carrick McCollough, the cutest kid to campaign in the name of renewable energy. And it's effective. Don't believe me? Just watch the video after the jump, where Carrick implores grownups to not blow it for him and his generation. How can we say no to this?

New York City, United States [RenewableEnergyWorld.com] Close to US $155 billion was invested in 2008 in renewable energy companies and projects worldwide, not including large hydro. Of this $13.5 billion of new private investment went into companies developing and scaling-up new technologies alongside $117 billion of investment in renewable energy projects from geothermal and wind to solar and biofuels. The 2008 investment is more than a four-fold increase since 2004 according to Global Trends in Sustainable Energy Investment 2009, prepared for the UN Environment Programme's (UNEP) Sustainable Energy Finance Initiative by global information provider New Energy Finance. Of the $155 billion, $105 billion was spent directly developing 40 GW of power generating capacity from wind, solar, small-hydro, biomass and geothermal sources. A further $35 billion was spent on developing 25 GW of large hydropower, according to the report.

Power lines, such as those near Hoover Dam, cannot be built to reach remote areas for renewable energy development until the areas for energy production are agreed upon. Several entities have offered or are working on maps locating renewable energy resources. By Alexandra Berzon (contact) Tue, Jun 16, 2009 (2 a.m.) Click to enlarge photo Chris Morris Related Document (.pdf) * See the Western Renewable Energy Zones report Sun Archives * State thinks big on solar power (6-15-2009) * The power of the desert (4-5-2009) * State faces obstacles to cashing in on sun (3-9-2009) Sun Coverage * Archive of Sun energy stories Related Story * States, energy secretary agree to safe nuclear waste transport On one map they look like bubbles. On another they're more like hot dogs. These shaded circles and oblongs in Nevada and across the West could one day be clusters of solar power plants, wind farms or geothermal energy projects.

TreeHugger has a post on the large volume of offshore wind power projects planned for Scotland - 6.4 Gigawatts of Offshore Wind Farms Slated for Scotland. A couple months back it was announced that the UK's Crown Estate would be helping out with financing pre-construction costs for offshore wind farms . Now comes word that The Crown Estate-which owns development rights in UK waters out to 200 miles-has offered exclusive agreements to nine companies for the development of offshore wind farms in Scottish waters totaling more than 6 GW of power. There are 10 plans on the table under these agreements: The largest is the Argyll Array at 1,500 MW, to be developed by Scottish Power Renewables. Airtricity Holdings has a sites amounting to 2,678 MW (Kintyre, 378 MW; Islay, 680 MW; Beatrice 920 MW; Bell Rock 700 MW). Inch Cape will see 905 MW of wind power developed by NPower Renewables. Fred Olsen Renewables will develop 415 MW at the Forth Array.

According to a new analysis by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), the combined efficiency and renewable electricity standard (CERES -- formerly RES) in the Waxman-Markey climate legislation will not increase renewable electricity generation and might actually reduce it. UCS concludes: "Bottom line: The Waxman-Markey RES does not ensure that any new renewable electricity will be developed beyond the renewables that are already projected to occur under the business as usual forecast by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)."

The 25-percent-by-2025 renewable electricity standard bill introduced today by Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) and Rep. Todd Platts (R-Pa.) would boost renewable energy generation by 135 percent above and beyond current policies between now and 2025, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists' preliminary analysis of the legislation. "This electrifying standard would provide a smart, proven, cost-effective strategy to ramp up our clean energy use, create tens of thousands of jobs, and lower consumer utility bills," said Alan Nogee, UCS Clean Energy Program director. "The clean energy tax incentives that Congress is finalizing will get us moving in the right direction in the near term, and the renewable energy standard makes sure we stay on that path for the foreseeable future."

The article "Renewable energy potential" (Work&Money, Editor's Choice, June 7) provided interesting and useful information. Now it is time to begin to use more renewable energy in North Carolina. One of our electric utility companies should develop a pilot project in one of the high-wind areas off the North Carolina coast. This energy could be used to provide some power to Elizabeth City, Manteo or any other city located on the northern part of our coast. Our electric utility companies have many intelligent engineers who could use new technology to build wind turbines that can withstand strong storms. If other states in the Northeast can build wind farms off their coasts, then North Carolina can surely do the same.

Taiwan's green energy industy is poised to boom after a statute aimed at promoting renewable energy development cleared the legislative floor last week, a Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) official said Saturday. Yeh Hui-ching, director of the MOEA Bureau of Energy, said passage of the Renewable Energy Development Act has formally ushered into Taiwan the era of alternative energy development and related applications.

BPA - Elliot Mainzer takes the key role in developing energy agency policy on climate change, planning and renewables As renewable energy becomes a bigger slice of the Northwest's energy pie, few institutions have as important a role to play as the Bonneville Power Administration, the federal agency that markets electricity generated at 31 dams and a nuclear plant in the region. BPA's regionwide web of transmission lines delivers electrons generated at wind farms east of the Cascades to power-hungry consumers in the Willamette Valley. The agency's flexibility to modulate electricity production at dams on the Columbia allows utilities to safely feed their spiky supply of wind energy onto the grid.

CleanTechnica has a post from San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom on the city's proposal to build a wave power plant offshore - Wave Energy to Bring Power and Jobs to San Francisco. Today, San Francisco took a meaningful step toward turning the promise of renewable ocean energy into reality. We submitted a preliminary permit application to the federal government to develop a wave power project off our coast that we believe can generate between 10 to 30 megawatts of energy, with potential of up to 100 megawatts. When this project is fully operational, upwards of 100 jobs could be created in San Francisco. Ocean power is a true "game changer" in the area of renewable energy. When wave and tidal power technologies reach commercial scale, they are expected to be able to provide thousands of megawatts of power to our coastal communities, dramatically green our energy portfolios and create thousands of new American jobs. In San Francisco, we've been doing our part to spur these technologies by aggressively advancing tidal and wave power pilot projects. We are 100% committed to this challenge. Wave power is not a new concept. In 1887, San Francisco Mayor Adolph Sutro recognized the power of San Francisco's waves and built a wave catch-basin to harness the ocean's power. Over the next century wave power development took a backseat to our dependence on oil, with oil platforms built along our coasts to feed our oil addiction.

Renewable Energy World has an article on some large scale efforts to map geothermal power resources in the western US - Western U.S. Entities Move Quickly on Geothermal Mapping. Several large geothermal resource mapping projects are heading toward conclusion so that finally, the power source can be more accurately considered in siting new electricity transmission lines for renewable power development. Given the Obama administration's investment focus on new transmission line development, the result of the mapping efforts should be a relatively rapid increase in the number and size of commercial-scale geothermal projects.

A consortium of European governments is developing the world's first International Renewable Energy Agency. The agency, known as IRENA, will serve as a global cheerleader for clean energy. It plans to offer technical, financial, and policy advice for governments worldwide, according to a joint announcement from Germany, Spain, and Denmark - the project's leaders.

China is planning a stimulus package worth 440 billion dollars to expand its renewable energy use, state media said, as the country aims to rely more on cleaner ways to power its growth. The three trillion yuan (439.7 billion dollars) investment will see part of the focus on wind power, the Beijing Morning Post said, citing Liang Zhipeng, a State Energy Administration official. The government has collected opinions from local economic planning agencies and relevant companies about a draft plan, Liang said, according to the report. Under the plan, China's wind power capacity will reach over 100 gigawatts by 2020, the report said, more than triple a goal of 30 gigawatts announced in 2007 in a renewable energy development plan.

Renewable Energy World has a report on a new Scottish wind farm - Europe's Largest Onshore Wind Farm Is Switched on in Scotland. Today, the final phase of Europe's largest onshore wind farm is being turned on in Scotland. The 322-megawatt (MW), 140-turbine Whitelee wind farm was built by ScottishPower Renewables, which is part of the Spanish power business Iberdrola. In Spain and internationally, the Iberdrola Group, is the world's largest developer of wind power, with nearly 9700 MW of installed capacity. The wind farm uses Siemens 2.3-MW machines. Positioned 370 meters (1200 feet) above sea level, 15 kilometers (9 miles) outside of Scotland's largest city, Glasgow, the new wind farm has over half a million people living within a 30-km radius of it. It's one of the first large-scale wind farms to be constructed close to a large population center. The first phase of the wind farm started feeding power into the grid in January 2008.

The Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Department of Energy (DOE); and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Department of the Interior (DOI), are preparing a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) to evaluate utility-scale solar energy development, to develop and implement Agency-specific programs that would establish environmental policies and mitigation strategies for solar energy projects, and to amend relevant Agency land use plans with the consideration of establishing a new BLM solar energy development program.

"With heightened concerns about global warming and our country's dependence on foreign oil, the need to accelerate the integration of clean, reliable, domestic energy sources into our country's energy portfolio is clear. Thus we must do more to unlock the potential of our country's location-constrained renewable energy resources. This order is one of the most significant steps this Commission has taken toward that goal.

In an effort to meet President Bush's "Twenty in Ten" goal and meet the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) targets in the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA) the Biomass Research and Development Board (the Board)-co-chaired by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)-developed the National Biofuels Action Plan (NBAP) to accelerate the development of a sustainable biofuels industry.

Certain lands (such as parks, critical wildlife habitats, and wilderness quality lands) and ecologically sensitive areas in the oceans are not appropriate for energy development. In some of these areas, energy development is prohibited or limited by law or policy, in others it would be highly controversial. NRDC does not endorse locating energy facilities or transmission lines in such areas. And in all cases, siting decisions must be made extremely carefully, impacts must be mitigated and operations conducted in an environmentally responsible manner. For more information on the intersection between clean energy development and wildland and wildlife conservation in the American West, including locations of parks, wildlife refuges and other conservation areas, see this Google Earth-based feature.