Eco20/20

A climatologist is someone who studies climates. Although often confused with meteorology, climatology is quite a different profession.

A career as an energy auditor is becoming an increasingly important one as more and more people are looking to make their homes more energy-efficient.

A new technique could pave the way for improving the workhorse lithium ion battery used in automobiles, cell phones and other devices so that it can recharge in seconds RAPID RECHARGE: Scientists tweaked a battery material to permit a super-quick flow of charge-carrying ions in and out. A new twist on the familiar lithium ion battery has yielded a type of power-storing material that charges and discharges at lightning speed. The finding could offer a boost for plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles and possibly allow cell phone batteries to regain a full charge in seconds rather than hours. Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.) report in Nature today that they devised a way for lithium ions in a battery to zip in and out about 100 times faster than previously demonstrated. "We took a basically great material called lithium iron phosphate [LiFePO4] and we tried to improve it further," says study author Byoungwoo Kang, a graduate student in M.I.T.'s Department of Materials Science and Engineering.

There has been of talk in the news about green collar jobs, green careers, and green in general.

Sustained growth of biomass is contingent upon consistent weather patterns which by no means are guaranteed in an age of global climate change.

Not sure whether a wind turbine on your property would generate enough energy to be worth the effort? Stew no more: the Carbon Trust has launched a new "Wind Yield Estimation Tool" on its Website. The tool lets users calculate their annual mean wind speed, potential energy generation and carbon savings based on postcode, landscape and type of wind turbine. According to the Carbon Trust, the tool is the "most rigorous of its kind" and is based on 30 years of data from the Met Office's 220 weather stations.

Denmark's DONG Energy and Siemens today announced they've signed off on "the world's largest offshore wind turbine agreement." Under the pact, Siemens will deliver up to 500 wind turbines for DONG's development of offshore wind energy installations in northern Europe. Once deployed, the turbines are expected to have a total power-generating capacity of 1,800 megawatts.

More than 100,000 people attend; a testament to the popularity of sustainable building and renewable energy in the region. by Michael Fell Wels, Upper Austria [RenewableEnergyWorld.com] Last week saw the return of the World Sustainable Energy Days conference which is held every year in Wels, Upper Austria. Taking place over three days (plus a day of site visits), the conference has three main streams: the European Pellet Conference, the European Energy Efficiency Conference and Regional Biomass Action Plans. Austria is an apt location for the conference - along with Sweden it is well known as one of Europe's biggest users of pellet technology - and as the final remnants of this year's snow melted away it is plain to see why. With cold winters and real enthusiasm for efficient and sustainable building, the demand for renewable heat is strong. The country is also highly forested, providing ample raw material for pellet production in the form of sawdust and wood shavings from sawmills (along with other biomass waste).

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.

Next Tuesday in Las Vegas renewable energy industry leaders, experts, companies and other interested participants will meet in Las Vegas to discuss how the industry is faring amidst the current economic conditions during Renewable Energy World North America, the renewable energy's leading expo and conference in North America. "While some companies may have delayed their growth plans in reaction to the current economic situation, I am hearing that they do plan to hire as soon as the U.S. stimulus package begins to take affect." -- Katharine Hart, Online Job Sales Manager, RenewableEnergyWorld.com The show kicks off with a keynote round-table session that will set the stage for the 3-day event. During the session, leaders of the major renewable industry trade associations plus a senior executive from host utility NV Energy will take part in a round-table discussion on the economy, the economic stimulus bill and renewable energy initiatives likely to come from the Obama Administration and Congress. These individuals have their fingers on the pulse of their respective industries and should be able to shed light on the most current insights into what the next four years may hold for the industry.

Spain has set a record this week by powering 29-40% of its electricity needs from wind energy. A huge 11,180 MW was generated on Thursday when high winds blew through north west Spain. When demand was lower early in the morning, wind energy supplied 40% of the country's requirements whilst later on when demand rose, wind energy supplied 29%. This year wind turbines have supplied 11.5% of electricity demand in Spain positioning the country as the third biggest producer of wind energy next to Germany (second) and the US (first). There is a national target of reaching 20,000 MW by 2010. This compares with a figure of just 7300 MW likely to be operational in the UK by 2010 (the number currently built or with planning consent). Companies with a significant presence in Spain are Iberdrola, Acciona and Endesa.

One man in the classroom earned more than $100,000 framing tract homes during the building heyday. Another installed pools and piloted a backhoe. Behind him sat a young father who made a good living swinging a hammer in southern Utah. But that was before construction jobs vanished like a fast-moving dust storm in this blustery high desert. Hard times have brought them to a classroom in Kern County, about 120 miles northeast of Los Angeles, to learn a different trade. Tonight's lesson: how to avoid death and dismemberment. This is Wind Technology Boot Camp at Cerro Coso Community College, where eight weeks of study and $1,000 in tuition might lead to a job repairing mammoth wind turbines sprouting up across the nation.

The City of Los Angeles has more Energy Star buildings than any other U.S. metropolis with 262 buildings, according to a new ranking issued by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Los Angeles and 24 other cities were recognized Tuesday by the EPA for using engineering and construction techniques that reduce energy consumption. Four California cities made the Top 25 Energy Star Buildings List. San Francisco ranked second with 194 buildings, while Sacramento and Riverside also made the list.

WorldChanging has a post on a Rocky Mountain Institute backed initiative to pave the way fro smart grids and electric vehicles - Project Get Ready Aims to Create Electric Vehicle Revolution. Creating a well functioning smart grid - cyclically connected to smart vehicles and buildings and houses, as well as personal and public renewable energy systems - will be no small infrastructure feat. Utility providers, technology innovators, neighborhood councils and local governments will need to come together to provide needed support -- both monetarily and ideologically. Although U.S. President Obama and the recently passed stimulus plan are pushing the renewable, electric energy revolution forward, residents across the nation might need more motivation to make the leap from fossil fuel users to plug-in pioneers. A new project, headed by "think-and-do" tank the Rocky Mountain Institute, is offering to help city leaders provide community members with that extra inspiration. The initiative, Project Get Ready, supplies a menu of strategies that are meant to help cities prepare for the "plug-in" transition. According to RMI, problems related to individual hesitancy toward purchasing electric vehicles and investing in the infrastructure itself, can "be overcome if cities/regions become ecosystems that welcome electric vehicles."

The Next100 blog has a post on expanding wind power in California and how advances in mapping wind resources are helping the industry grow - Let It Blow. Solar power is, if you'll pardon the pun, easily the hottest sector of the electric generation market today in terms of public interest. But if California is going to achieve the widely proposed goal of acquring a third of its electrical energy from renewable sources by 2020, wind energy will almost certainly be the flagship carrier of the renewable power industry. Forecasts indicate that achieving the 33% renewable goal would require ramping up wind energy from 2,100 megawatts in 2006 to at least 12,500 MW by 2020. Solar, by contrast, would likely grow from 330 MW in 2006 to 6,000 MW in 2020.

U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu today announced the release of two Funding Opportunity Announcements (FOAs) for up to $84 million to support the development of Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS). Geothermal energy technologies use energy from the earth to heat buildings and generate electricity. Enhanced Geothermal Systems offer the potential to extend geothermal resources to larger areas of the western United States, as well as into new geographic areas of the entire country. These projects will help support the Administration's efforts to invest in clean energy technologies, create millions of new jobs, end our addiction to foreign oil, and address climate change. "President Obama has laid out an ambitious agenda to put millions of people to work by investing in clean energy technology like geothermal energy," said Secretary Chu. "The Administration is committed to funding important research like this to transform the way we use and produce energy and reduce our dangerous dependence on foreign oil."

March 3, 2009 Arizona based First Solar has achieved a major milestone in reducing the manufacturing cost for solar panels below the $1 per watt price barrier - the target necessary for solar to compete with coal-burning electricity on the grid or grid-parity. Using cadmium telluride (CdTe) technology in its thin-film photovoltaic cells, First Solar claims to have the lowest manufacturing cost per watt in the industry with the ability to make solar cells at 98 cents per watt, one third of the price of comparable standard silicon panels. The efficiency is in part due to a low cycle time - 2.5 hours from sheet of glass to solar module - about a tenth of the time it takes for silicon equivalents.