Group items matching

in title, tags, annotations or url

Rail travel is more energy efficient, and uses less fuel, than cars or airplanes. According to U.S. Department of Energy data, Amtrak is almost 20 percent more efficient than domestic airline travel and 30 percent more efficient than auto travel ...

Ecogeek has a post on an offshore wind farm planned for the US great lakes - Nation's First Freshwater Offshore Wind Farm Planned for Lake Erie. It's an exciting time in wind energy these days. The U.S. will be getting its first offshore wind farm thanks to Cape Wind's long-awaited approval, and now plans for the first freshwater offshore wind farm in the U.S. have been announced as well. The Lake Erie Energy Development Corp has signed a deal with GE to purchase five offshore wind turbines destined for the Ohio waters of the lake. The 4-MW turbines will be placed three to five miles offshore though their exact planned location isn't known. This is expected to be the first order of many from the development corp that has made a goal of having 1 GW of freshwater-based wind energy online by 2020."

"A new survey conducted by Applied Materials, Inc. reveals that two-thirds of Americans believe solar technology should play a greater role in meeting the country's energy needs. In addition, three-quarters of Americans feel that increasing renewable energy and decreasing U.S. dependence on foreign oil are the country's top energy priorities. According to the survey, 67 percent of Americans would be willing to pay more for their monthly utility bill if their utility company increased its use of renewable energy and 49 percent of consumers polled would be willing to pay $5 or more each month for an increased amount of renewable energy-a 14 percent increase from the results of Applied Materials' 2009 survey. "Americans are becoming more aware of the need for responsible energy solutions, like solar power, and increasingly want their government to drive policy and investment aimed at finding alternative ways to power our homes and economy," said Dr. Charles Gay, president of Applied Solar, a division of Applied Materials. "With the right energy legislation in place, the U.S. could reap the benefits of one of the biggest economic job engines of this century - the clean energy revolution.""

Forbes has ranked the planet's top 10 most efficient countries, as measured in BTUs per U.S. dollar of GDP.

The largest fully industrialized populus in the world could be entirely powered by a small fraction of solar desert energy, according to new plan The U.S. has some big plans for solar, both with building new power plants and through businesses and consumers adding solar panels to rooftops and unused land. However, no U.S. solar effort thus far compares to the ambitious plan that European Union (EU) officials are considering.

What if cutting greenhouse emissions could also save the lives of soldiers in Iraq, where fuel-laden convoys make them targets? The U.S. Army says it is happening now in a push to reduce its carbon "bootprint." From forward areas like Iraq and Afghanistan to training ranges in the United States, the Army has been working to limit its use of fossil fuels and make its operations more environmentally sustainable.

Great point, and one I've not heard before. Yet another benefit of going low-carbon. I suspect that there must be many linkages between sustainable energy and the military. Energy efficiency could be another one. It extends the range of equipment, It reduces demands on upstream logistics and so on.

Biofuels production will create an estimated total of 123,000 jobs by 2012, according to a report released last week titled U.S. Economic Impact of Advanced Biofuels Production by Bio Economic Research Associates. The report estimated that advanced biofuels production will create 383,000 jobs by 2016 and 807,000 jobs by 2022.

We've been hearing that renewable energy is a fast-growing sector, and now it's official: The Energy Information Administration's (EIA) latest report found that renewable energy made up the biggest share in the U.S.'s electricity capacity increase in 2007. The huge wind power industry, not surprisingly, accounts for most of this increase. According to the EIA's Electrical Power Annual report:

This story is now repeated annually. And of course it is correct in capacity terms, but fails to recognise the relatively modest energy contribution for all this capacity. If one were to make the comparison in terms of GWh instead of GW, the picture would be totally different. If this goes on for a while, baseload electricity users, today's utilities' best friends, may become a sheer nuisance in the future.

The climate in Iraq is hot and dry with plenty of sunshine. Since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the electricity infrastructure has been in shambles. The actual electricity production in IraqIraq is about one-third of the electrical grid's capacity. The U.S. government, as of July last year, spent $4.91 billion repairing the Iraqi infrastructure, but only there is only a few hours of electricity a day for most Iraqis. Enter solar energy.

Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) recently released its 2008 U.S. Solar Industry Year in Review, highlighting a third year of record growth. The report notes that 1,265 megawatts (MW) of solar power of all types were installed in 2008, bringing total U.S. solar power capacity up 17 percent to 8,775 MW. The 2008 figure included 342 MW of solar photovoltaic (PV), 139 MWTh (thermal equivalent) of solar water heating, 762 MWTh of pool heating and an estimated 21 MW of solar space heating and cooling.

During a recent speech, Obama spoke of the key role renewable energy will play in his economic recovery plan. He emphasized the need to "transform our economy…and save our planet from the ravages of climate change" by developing renewable energy. In March, the U.S. Interior Department secretary Ken Salazar, recently issued an order to create a special task force to encourage the development of renewable energy projects on federal lands.

Each year, things seem to get more exciting for the renewable energy industries, and 2007 was no exception. Although there was much disappointment about the exclusion of important provisions for renewables in the recent U.S. energy bill, the overall global picture was positive. With 31 gigawatts of renewable energy developed around the world, 17 billion dollars in global market transactions and 21 billion dollars in global venture capital invested in new companies in 2007, clean energy can no longer be considered an "alternative" -- it is simply the natural evolution of energy.