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The US Department of Energy announced Friday award selections for $60 million in funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to support transmission planning for the country’s three interconnection transmission networks

South Korea electronics giant LG has announced plans to invest 20 trillion won (£10 billion) ‘green’ research and development and reduce its own emissions 40% on current levels by 2020.Investment will be divided between expanding its energy efficient products and renewable energy businesses in fuel cells and rechargeable batteries and improving the performance of the company’s facilities.

Production of small SHP improves in the country

n 2010, thermal energy displaced hydro as the major source of energy generation for the Chilean Central Interconnected System.  Coal, natural gas, and diesel supplied over 50% of energy consumed while hydropower accounted for 48%.  This trend is expected to continue in 2011 if current water shortage conditions persist. (El Mercurio, 1/4/11)  Last year’s drought created a 26% increase in thermal generation as compared to 2009.

The Regional Energy Efficiency Strategy initiative led by Bun-ca has reported an energy savings of 9368 MWh over the past six years, equivalent to 4992 tons of carbon dioxide, by working with 190 companies in the industrial and commercial sectors to become more energy efficient.   Recently UNEP’s En.lighten study estimated that Costa Rica could save 276,000 MWh and $27.6 million per year if they changed all light bulbs to CFLs.  The cost of this change was estimated to be $22.63 million.  (El Financiero CR, 1/3/11)

The Mexican government is planning to invest four billion dollars to build a one thousand megawatt renewable energy storage facility in Northern Mexico.   The facility will use a special kind of sodium sulfide batteries for the project which is expected to be completed in the next six years.  (Clean Techies, 1/6/11)

Mexico Takes Lead in Latin America with Announcement of Region’s Largest GE LED Street Lighting Project

Public consultations are an essential part of policy development. They provide the Department with necessary feedback on proposals for legislative change or other new initiatives, thus informing the Government's decision making process.

But for now, there's a pretty good chance today's hearing was just a warm-up round for a much more serious fight yet to come. At this point, says Sierra Club chief counsel Joanne Spalding, the EPA's opponents "are trying to derail a train that's still in the station." 

Smart metering is a sexy topic in the energy world, with nearly all Western economies considering plans for large deployments.  It can be used in many different ways but normally there is more than one goal behind a smart metering deployment: In the US, smart metering was, for the most part, driven by the desire to reduce the costs associated with manual meter reading, to reduce peak load and to enhance security of supply. In Italy, one of the key drivers was tackling energy theft and the cost of managing meters. In Ontario, it was peak shaving and the move toward time-of-use pricing. But if smart meters have the potential to address a number of issues, that potential can only be realised by flexible system design and deployment, avoiding excessive rigidity. In this case, one size most certainly does not fit all. We fear that the UK’s current plans for a nationwide rollout of smart meters may well be taking us down the wrong path by imposing standard solutions on the wrong part of the system.