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Can Wind Power Make a Profit?

© Tracy O Forbes took a look at that question this month. Forbes looks at one specific example... A windmill doesn't make economic sense, even though this poor entrepreneur is gouged 19 cents per kilowatt-hour from his utility. A 121-foot, 100-kilowatt turbine from Northern Power runs $...

The Coming Solar Revival

Forbes had an article earlier this month on SunPower and the solar energy revival it expects to see soon... This guardedly optimistic outlook came Tuesday... and follows an abysmal period in which new commercial-scale solar business has stalled due to the lack of bank funding for projects. The...

Is Algae the Real Future of Biofeul?

A piece at Renewable Energy World recently asked that question. Energy policy at the moment sets targets for biofuel use. Those targets are pretty high and only a certain amount (less than half, eventually) can come from ethanol. Where will the rest come from? Algae has emerged as a promising fe...

Wind in Virginia Gains Support

Wind energy is gaining support in Virginia's far west, according to the Associated Press . I live in an area where the proposed construction of 400-foot high wind turbines has become a contentious issue. Supporters of the region's coal industry see wind as a competitive threat. Local resi...

Batteries Get Stimulus Grants

VentureBeat pointed out last week that $2 billion worth of federal grants were being awarded to battery makers in the near future. Grants will run between $100 million and $150 million. The deadline to apply for a grant was yesterday. From the article: Candidates for the money are required to p...

The Solúcar Platform (PS20) Solar Power Tower - Now Operational in Spain

With all the focus on cars recently, solar energy seems to have moved to thirds place in the public mind, after wind energy. So when I saw this piece in Renewable Energy World I thought I'd use it to bring solar energy up front again for a moment... Abengoa Solar has started commercial operat...

No More Hydrogen Cars?

There's been a lot of nergy legislation news in the past couple of weeks. But TreeHugger pointed out one chunk of news that didn't get much coverage. Federal support funding for hydrogen cars seems to have collapsed for now: The money was stripped because the president and Steven Chu, his...

Miles Per Acre: Is Electricity Better than Ethanol?

Science Daily recently looked at the question: How can we maximize our "miles per acre" from biomass? While it is possible to turn biomass into ethanol to burn in internal combustion engine cars, researchers writing in the online edition of the journal Science on May 7 said that conver...

Will Biofuel Make It?

BusinessWeek had a long but informative perspective piece on the future of biofuel earlier this month. Simply put, the outlook is bleak... Yet behind the very real innovations and investments, the brash claims and the breathless headlines, lies an inconvenient truth. Replacing petroleum with biofu...

Small Wind: GE Is Investing

CNET reported earlier this month that GE is sinking money into wind power. But it's not the big super-turbines, it's small personal wind turbines that GE is focusing on. Southwest Windpower, which makes residential wind turbines, said on Monday it has raised $10 million from existing inves...

Will Japan Subsidize Green Cars?

TreeHugger published a piece last week on the possibility rumor that Japan's government may start encouraging green cars ownership with a $3000 (300,000 yen) subsidy. The Japanese media has been reporting that the subsidies will be part of a big stimulus package that may include money for ene...

The American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009

The American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 exists now in draft form in the U.S. House. The WWF is happy; groups like Shop Floor are unhappy. I had to laugh at one of Shop Floor's points. They agreed that the new law would create a lot of jobs, but said that so did Hurricane Katri...

Three of Spain's Cities Getting Electric Car Infrastructure

TreeHugger had a piece last week on development in Spain's move to electric cars. The pretty southern Spanish town of Seville has been chosen along with the capital Madrid and the northern hub Barcelona to implement the Movele pilot electric car infrastructure project proposed by the Spani...

The Future of Electric Car Maker Th!nk

Norwegian car maker Th!nk is in the news at the moment. Treehugger describes Th!nk as having "a long and troubled history - gone bankrupt twice, changed hands a couple of times (including a short stormy marriage with Ford) and stopped its production line late last year when the economic cr...

The Most Powerful Hybrid

I guess everybody needs a little glamour and luxury from time to time. There's no reason that alternative energy shouldn't get some... BusinessWeek has a piece this week on the debut in Geneva of Nissan's Infiniti Essence - a 600 horsepower hybrid V6 sports car. To celebrate 20 years ...

Coal and the New EPA

TreeHugger had a piece I thought was interesting earlier this month on how the Obama Administration's EPA is likely to deal with coal. Following the EPA's stance on coal-fired power plants during the final months of the Bush Administration was enough to make you dizzy: first, it stated in ...

Coming Soon: The Car Battery War

As the internal combustion engine is slowly replaced in by electric car engines, the economic balance of power in the world will shift. OPEC will be replaced (eventually) by economic powerhouses that make... car batteries. Last week BusinessWeek had a good rundown on the world of lithium ion batt...

Ireland Hopes to Become Electric Car Hub

Justin Moresco had an interesting piece yesterday morning about Ireland's efforts to attract foreign investment by becoming a model for the switch to electric cars. The government of Prime Minister Brian Cowen originally proposed the plan back in November. As part of the Electric Vehicle pla...

BP, Dominion Power Look to Bring Windmills to Bluefield

I attended a public hearing last night. Tazewell County, Virginia is considering an ordinance to regulate the construction of "tall structures" on ridge lines in the Central Appalachian county. BP Wind Energy and a power company called Dominion want to put 400-feet tall wind turbines o...

Underway Now: World Future Energy Summit, in Abu Dhabi

TreeHugger pointed out to me yesterday that the World Future Energy Summit is underway at the moment in the capital of the United Arab Emirates. Renewable energy has become big business in the UAE. The country has made a decision to start a renewable energy sector for their economy - from scrat...

Norwegian Electric Autonmaker Finds Funding

Treehugger is reporting that Norwegian automaker THINK has found the funding it needs to resume making cars. The Oslo-based company said that it had secured NOK 40 million ($5.7 million) in loans which will allow it to restructure, and could allow it to raise the permanent capital needed to resume...

Qinghai Solar Power Plant Would Be World's Biggest

Venture Beat was the first source that I saw this in: plans have been announced to build a gigawatt-sized solar power station in Qinghai Province, China. If it goes through, it would be the largest solar power station on earth at the moment. The Chinese companies involved are China Technology...

Biofuels May be Obsolete Before We Can Make Enough to Matter - Part III

From Seeking Alpha , back in February: The Energy Bill requires that 3% of ethanol be derived from cellulosic sources by 2012, and 44% by 2022. That means, by my estimates, we'll need to produce 405 million gallons of cellulosic ethanol in 2012 and 15.84 billion gallons in 2022.... I'd cons...

Biofuels May be Obsolete Before We Can Make Enough to Matter - Part II

A few days ago we talked about ethanol - about how we're stuck with corn and sugarcane based ethanol because of the huge investment that's been made in it and the desire the industry has to at least recoup that investment even if ethanol production is ultimately a bad thing for the planet...

Biofuels May be Obsolete Before We Can Make Enough to Matter - Part I

The Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 calls for the U.S. fuel market to use 100 million gallons of cellulosic biofuel in 2010, according to Justin Moresco over at Red Herring. And according to Moresco, a report published earlier this month by investment bank ThinkEquity forecasts an 80%...

China's BYD Auto Puts a Plug-in Hybrid on the Market There

While automakers in the US and Japan worry about how to cope with the global recession, one China car maker has made the great leap forward into the world of plug-in hybrids. According to Business Week , BYD Auto (a SHENZHEN -based company listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange ) "got a ...

Grays Harbor to Take Wind Farms Off Shore

Grays Harbor Energy announced plans this past week to take wind farms off Shore , according to Michael Lee over at Red Herring . Seattle-based Grays Harbor is looking at seven off shore US sites where both wind and wave facilities could be set up. The projects would be in waters off California,...

This blog has been retired

This blog is not active anymore. We had great fun doing and we hope you enjoyed it too. However we felt we are missing the beat a little here - so we thought let's start afresh with something new. However that might change and we have in the past reinvigorated sites after some time (2 years...

The Golden Bridge and the Power Underneath

I am very proud to have found the picture on the left. It shows the Golden Bridge in San Francisco and a powerful wave crashing against one of the berthing pillars there. It is so appropriate with what San Francisco plans to do now, which is to harness the tidal power underneath the bridge...

Russian Missile Experts Defects to RE

I used to read a lot about the cold war and the drama back in the 80s from fictional writers like Tom Clancy . I never realized it until now, but think about it for one minute. After the cold war and soldiers, agents, and even scientsts from both sides suddenly find themselves out of &quo...

Solar Cellular Phones

Have you ever experienced getting a low-battery alert at a very critical time (i.e. when you need your cellular phone to call the office, a buyer, or the wife)? Fear no more because one of the most practical gadget fit for the man (or woman) on the go has just been made commercially available. H...

Exploring US Oil

I think people who find the middle ground make the practical sense but lacks one clear thing; an understanding of urgency. Here is one middle-ground type of opinion on oil from Examiner.com. I think the position being explained is practical. The use of oil and exploration for new resources of o...

Biofuels Could Cause Oil Prices to Go Through the Roof?

Yesterday I was in a meeting with key persons who are in the know of the biofuel situation worldwide and one of the things that surpised me, during that brief luncheon was one statement. Someone said that the price of oil may increase due to biofuel use. I was floored! It is so counter-intuit...

Power from Above

This is a statement that is beyond contestation. The Vatican has recently declared that its Power is to come from Above! This week, the Vatican has decided that in line with its recent declaration of being a guiding factor of Earth's custodians, all its electrical power will have to com...

Heat to Electricity Through Sound

here is a real technological breakthrough. Waste heat to Energy Through Sound. I bet that caught your attention. This article from Psyhorg.Com describes how scientists from the University of Utah developed small devices that promises to change waste heat into electricity, perfect for wa...

Carbon Credits: A Sucker Born Every Minute

... Roden over at IfEnergy brought up the fact that his friend is into carbon credits as an investment, and is doing quite well at it. I know Al Gore would be proud. I kind of chuckled to myself know...

Americans Favor Solar

A recent survey commissioned by Sharp Electronics reports that about 90 percent of Americans want solar as new home options. This is a significant increase since last year's 79 percent. Thats a great sign that the general American public is getting sold on the idea of renewables, and more imp...

Laser Fusion

The myth of Laser Fusion may become a non-myth soon. This article from The Guardian says that a multinational project that is being led by British researchers aims to replicate how the sun (and other stars in the universe) creates energy. And this group of rocket scientists are doing it with hi...

Two Biodiesel for Europe Stories

Here are two stories on Biodiesel, one from the supplier and one from the buyer. Planet Ark reports on the European Commission ensuring an increase of biofuels use, that is up to 10 percent of all vehicle requirements by 2020. This one from PhilStar reports countries Malaysia and Indones...

Solar Canada

Canadians are getting into the act. Just this week, OptiSolar Canada which is a subsidiary of California's OptiSolar Inc. said that it will build a 40 MWe solar farm near Sarnia, Ontario beginning early next year. What a great development, especially since it will demonstrate Canada's rea...

UK: The Second Most Environmentally Attractive Country

Her Majesty, the Queen would be so happy! According to this article , the United Kingdom is the second most attractive country for investment in clean energy, according to Ernst and Young. Thanks to the boom in RE technology investments in the UK and their committment to carbon dioxide ...

"Welcome to the first solar-hydrogen residence in North America."

According to this article , that is the sign infront of Mike Strizki, a 50-year old director of residential and commerical systems for Advanced Solar Products, house. This is how the house was described: Mike Strizki's house, the house of the future, the revolutionary house that might very...

Pedal Your Clothes Clean

Once in a while I like to look at inventions and innovations of common people, yours, the guy next to you, the old lady living across the street, my nerdy officemate, you know, those folks you do stuff at home that are really marvelous. This is one from Homeless Dave which I found at GreenOption...

Stock Market Picks

This is a side issue but I got excited looking at the possible stock options . DeepMarket is a great site that features top stock picks. I see some RE firms here that you may want to consider, since the RE market is booming.

If Beer Becomes a Problem

Hell will break lose in Germany, according to this article . And why not when beer strikes very close to home? In fact, when the price of a staple commodity becomes a problem, people get threatened, which is what they will feel when they see beer prices coming up due to barley prices climbin...

Spain's New RE Regulations

I think this is very interesting since Spain is one of the leading RE countries in the world. Those of you who are looking at making the US more incentivized should see how the Spanish manage their rules. And instead of just providing you the link, I took the liberty of copying and pasting the en...

Raising Questions on US RE Incentives

Do you find the current boom of incentives for RE technology development in the US questionable? This article from the Herald Tribune raises that question. But why raise the question when the government is backing up its talk with action? Legislation on RE technologies are booming every ...

Iran Eyes Solar

And not for anything destructive. In fact, this is one of news from Iran that I welcome. According to this article from Press TV , Solar Heating is now starting in Iran. The Iranian Fuel Conservation Organization (IFCO) is carrying out a 5-year plan to install solar heaters in critical fa...

Alternative Fuel Coal

This would make my top ten most ridiculous things that happened in 2007 list. Look at the heading from this site : Coal Is Pitched As 'Alternative Fuel' . Run that by me again? Coal is a fossil fuel that is used because it is cheaper than anything else right now. And its use i...

Poultry Power

Poultry litter which is a combination of poultry droppings, some seeds, wood chips, feed, even feathers are being used as fertilizer but because it leaches to the ground people are looking for ways to dispose of it. Here is one , Poultry Power! In Benson, Minnesotta, a 55-megawatt powe...

Interesting Concept: Solartopia

Here is an interesting link to an interesting concept called Solartopia . According to them, Solartopia is a a democratic, green-powered 21st Century civilization that is based on total renunciation of all fossil and nuclear fuels, all-out conversion to renewable energy, (primarily wind ...

Bioethanol.Com.Ph

...s plan). So please visit the site and show some love! I will connect some information off of it to IfEnergy to get a East- West connection. Send me comments too! ...

Greenedia

... called Greenedia , a collection of blogs that deal with climate change and renewable energy. IfEnergy was chosen as a member of the technology blogs, having concentrated in renewable energy ...

Profit from Global Warming

Like the Japanese. But this time, you too can profit from the deluge of investments that are related to addressing global climate change by way of renewable energy technologies. Of course, a few days back I wrote about this and the fact that the investment bubble may burst (anytime soon, I hope n...

Michigan Briefs its Local Official on Wind Energy Guidelines

This is a great example of legislation going down to the last guy. This article discusses how officials from Tustin learned about wind energy guidelines and how these could be brought to their communities. This is a timely development since there are 52 wind projects in the planning stag...

Washington Doesn't Do Renewable - Yet

Mayors of major cities all over the planet are going against climate change except Washington DC who seems to be hearing a different tune, according to this article . If you recall, several mayors met in New York this month to discuss cooperative and aggregated action against greenhouse gas emis...

Global Climate Change Debate?

Is there a debate on the effects of global warming ? This article says experts are still debating. But it looks like there is some debate after all with the center of the discussion being, is climate change affecting every thing and is it causing all these weird weather occurances? It loo...

Solar Heating 101

Here is an interesting story on the subject of using solar, after summer. Home based renewable energy concepts include small wind-turbines and solar heating and so far, solar energy for water heating has been the easiest and most successful practice. In fact, because water takes so much energ...

Climate Change Goes Artsy

I got an invitation to go to this artsy gathering. I think its for the benefit of contributing to climate change mitigation. Sponsored by the WWF (the last movie on climate change I saw, An Inconvenient Truth, was screened through WWF as well), this Promises to be a fascinating event. Too bad...

Which Country to Invest In, Renewable Energy Wise

If you are looking at favorable renewable energy platform and opportunities for investment, Ernst and Young's Renewable Energy Country Attractiveness suggests you go to the US, India, and Spain. In Asia, there is also China, which ranks sixth but is easily moving up the charts with various w...

Hydrogen to Replace Gasoline as Main Fuel for Transport

Carnegie Mellon University is making hydrogen the most probable replacement to gasoline by increasing hydrogen's stability and reducing its costs. According to Professor David Sholl of Carnegie Mellon's chemical engineering department : "...We are currently studying the use of...

US Energy Department Proposes Loan Guarantees for Renewable Energy Projects

The US Energy Department has proposed regulations that would lead to government backed guarantees for commercial loans for renewable energy projects. The loan guarantees would cover financing for biofuel, particularly ethanol distilleries, nuclear plants, carbon dioxide capture, and other cle...

Japan Tries to Catch Up on Solar Power Generation

Japan was the world's leading solar power generating country until 2005 when Germany eclipsed its position and became the foremost solar generating country. The race however, remains close with Germany accounting for 39 percent of the world's solar generating capacity while Japan f...

Aggressive Wind Energy Targets for the US

According to the American Wind Power Association more than 3000 Megawatts of wind power will be put up in the US, easily a 25 percent increase in capacity this year. In 2006, the US increased its wind capacity by 20% to 11,600 megawatts and this year that number is expected to near 15,000 megawat...

Tata Power of India to Build 100 MW Wind Energy with the Asian Development Bank

India has emerged as the fifth largest producer of wind energy in the world. It soon may become the biggest wind producer in Asia, as the Asian Development Bank has extended financing support to develop a 100-megawatt energy plant in India, according to this report . Specifically, the project is...

40 Largest Cities Looking Out for Climate Change

The first piece of news that jumped off the page today was this article from Yahoo.com. It looks like the mayors of the 40 largest cities in the world have convened to talk about how to become more energy efficient and how to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. I think this is a big event, s...

The Renewable Energy Bubble?

Will we see the investment bubble on all this crazy renewable energy investments burst soon? This is the topic of New York research firm, Lux Research and their recent findings. According to Lux president Matthew Nordan clean energy investments globally last year was $US1.5 billion, up by a h...

ANZ of Australia goes Carbon Neutral

ANZ is Australia's third largest bank and this year, it aims to reduce its environmental footfrint and become carbon-neutral by 2009. As in other organizations, the way to carbon-neutrality is through investments in renewable energy projects and improved administrative practices that lead to ...

Fueling Your Car: Ethanol or Coal

There is an on-going coal Versus ethanol issue now in the US senate. It looks like the US Senate may legislate the replacement of one fourth of the US national gasoline with bioethanol and then further cutting gasoline consumption to half the projected requirement by 2030. What do you repl...

50% Renewable Energy for the US by 2025?

Can renewable energy resources supply 50% of the US demand for electricity by 2025? The American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE) believes its possible. According to this article from CNN , Micheal Eckhart, president of ACORE believes that huge amounts of energy can be supplied in an environ...