The 21st Century Smart Grid

The 21st Century Smart Grid

What is the Smart Grid and how will it impact U.S. energy efficiency and greenhouse gas emissions? What major projects are underway and how much will they cost? The B-Green Collaborative investigates and provides you the answers.

Residential Heating Efficiency – Furnaces, Boiler, & Heat Pumps

This article discusses various heating systems and the opportunities to reduce fossil fuel consumption for residential heating. The discussion will review heating system efficiency, costs of different energy sources, and the GHG emissions from these sources. It will also help you compare your existing heating system efficiency to the best currently available systems to determine if it’s replacement is economically justifiable.

Week in Review: March 7, 2010 to March 14, 2010

  1. On Monday, U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu announced an award of approximately $40 million to two teams led by Pittsburgh-based Westinghouse Electric Co. and San Diego-based General Atomics for conceptual design and planning of the Next Generation Nuclear Plant (NGNP) capable of producing electricity as well as process heat for industrial applications.  About 16% of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions come from industrial process heat applications.  The process heat or steam generated by the high-temperature nuclear reactors has the potential to help energy-intensive industries, such as petrochemical producers, reduce carbon dioxide emissions (Read more).
  2. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued a report called “Assessing the Multiple Benefits of Clean Energy: A Resource for States”.  The report is designed to help state energy, environmental, and economic policy makers identify and quantify the many benefits of clean energy to support the development and implementation of cost-effective clean energy initiatives (Read the report).
  3. A-Power Energy Generation Systems Ltd., the U.S. Renewable Energy Group and American Nevada Group have announced they will jointly develop a wind turbine production and assembly plant in Nevada with an annual turbine production capacity of 1.1 Gigawatts.  The proposed plant, which will be about 320,000 square feet, will supply wind energy turbines to renewable energy projects throughout North and South America (Read more).
  4. On Tuesday, around 120 wind industry lobbyists and wind industry chiefs arrived on Capitol Hill, calling for a long-term national target for utilities to source 25% of their electricity supplies from renewable energy by 2025.  As well as forcing states without a RES in place to catch up, industry experts suggest a nationwide standard would encourage more regional, inter-state co-operation in renewable energy projects, such as transmission system upgrades.  According to Denise Bode, CEO of the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA), “A national RES will result not just in new installations, but also in new manufacturing. The RES is the most important buy-American policy we can do” (Read more).
  5. On Thursday, the European Commission announced that new forecasts suggest the European Union will exceed its target of getting 20 percent of its energy from renewable sources in 2020.  The latest national projections submitted by governments to the EU suggest the 27-nation bloc could reach an overall renewable share of 20.3 percent by the end of the decade.  According to EU Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger, “These forecasts show that member states take renewable energy very seriously and are really dedicated to pushing their domestic production” (Read more).
  6. On Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu announced that NRG Energy has been selected to receive up to $154 million under the third round of the Clean Coal Power Initiative (CCPI), a cost-shared collaboration between the federal government and private industry to demonstrate low-emission carbon capture and storage technologies in advanced coal-based, power generation. NRG will construct a 60 megawatt carbon capture demonstration facility at the company’s W.A. Parish Unit 7 in Thompsons, Texas (Read more).
  7. On Thursday, Sun Edison announced that it has received final approval from the Italian government to develop and construct a 72 Megawatt (MW) photovoltaic solar power plant in Northeastern Italy.  When completed, this is expected to be the largest photovoltaic (PV) solar power plant in Europe.  Currently, the largest facility is a 60MW solar farm in Olmedilla, Spain, followed by a 50 MW in Strasskirchen, Germany.  Power generation at the Sun Edison plant will begin in the second half of 2010 with final completion expected by year end (Read more).

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Educational

A Breakthrough Technolgy to Transform Algae to Oil

A Breakthrough Technolgy to Transform Algae to Oil

A Breakthrough Technolgy to Transform Algae to Oil Presentation by Riggs Eckelberry, of OriginOil.

C-ROADS Simulation Slide Presentation

As part of our effort to educate , B-Green Collaborative is making it a priority to share information and articles that we find of interest.
Click on title to be taken to C-ROADS, Climate Change Forecast Presentation Given in Copenhagen, March 2009.

Press Releases

Governor Patrick Unveils $20 Million in Federal Solar Stimulus Funding

Meridian Associates, Inc., a leading provider of renewable energy, engineering and laser scanning services announced that it is part of a project team led Nexamp, a full service clean energy solutions company that has recently been awarded a contract for the turnkey development of large scale roof- and ground-mounted solar photovoltaic (PV) energy projects.

OriginOil Turns Corner to Commercialization, Unveils In-House Pilot System

OriginOil, Inc. (OOIL), the developer of a breakthrough technology to transform algae, the most promising source of renewable oil, into a true competitor to petroleum, unveiled a comprehensive pilot system for algae growth and harvesting at an exclusive event held at its Los Angeles headquarters on Thursday, January 28, 2010.