Clean Energy Transition

A Michigan public university plans to test a floating wind turbine platform to demonstrate how wind energy could work on Lake Michigan. Grand Valley State University's Michigan Alternative & Renewable Energy Center received $1.4 million in federal funding to conduct the study. The university plans to have the platform installed by the fall of 2010. Meanwhile, We Energies plans to issue a request for proposals in early November that will be the start of a $3 million study sanctioned by the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin to determine the feasibility of wind turbines on Lake Michigan. We Energies spokesman Brian Manthey said the energy utility is not involved in the Michigan study, but will collaborate with Grand Valley State to share information

Ground Source Heat Pump Installation provides domestic hot water, heating and cooling to homes and commercial buildings using solar power saved in the earths crust.

The best prospects for large-scale renewable energy production and net-energy performance remain wind and certain forms of solar, according to a study released by two California-based think tanks. "It is reasonable to conclude ... that a full replacement of energy currently derived from fossil fuels with energy from alternative sources is probably impossible over the short term; it may be unrealistic to expect it even over longer time frames," explains Searching for a Miracle: Net Energy Limits & the Fate of Industrial Society. The report was published by the International Forum on Globalization with content provided by the Post Carbon Institute.

NV Energy deal, legislation in Congress could help state develop solar power SolarReserve, a California energy company, is planning to build a 100-megawatt solar thermal power plant near Tonopah, and on Tuesday it announced that NV Energy had agreed to buy power from the plant. As Stephanie Tavares reported on the Las Vegas Sun's Web site, the plant is designed to use heat storage technology that will allow its steam turbines to run at night. The Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project is being vetted by the Bureau of Land Management. The company says it could break ground by 2011 and expects construction to last two years.

It seems cruelly ironic that tapping into Southern Nevada's vast solar energy potential could slowly drain our desert. Traditional solar thermal power plants that use wet cooled technology require millions of gallons of water over time in the process of converting solar rays into clean, renewable power for our community. Southern Nevada received some good economic news last month when Solar Millennium, a division of one of the world's top solar power generators, announced new plans to use a "dry-cooling" system on two proposed solar power plants in Amargosa Valley, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. This dry-cooling system will use 90 percent less water than previously planned.

"Let start a civilization which provides for its energy using renewable energy. Our organisation will contribute to reach this goal. We found a appropriate name for our organisation, OliNo, which is a Dutch word joke for No Oil!"

If a report released Tuesday by the International Energy Agency is correct, then the $2 billion committed by the Alberta government toward the development of carbon capture and storage is nothing more than a drop in the bucket. The IEA estimates it will cost as much as $10 trillion U.S. between 2010 and 2030 for the world to keep carbon dioxide emissions below 450 parts per million and temperatures from rising more than 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit. While that level of investment might be enough for even the most ardent climate change advocate to throw their hands up and surrender, there's a little bit of good news to be found in the report.

While other governments are reducing their feed-in schemes, UK is moving towards them.